Portage Soccer Club U10-Stinson Girls Team

Coach:  Margie Stinson

Assistants:  Tammy Brown & Norm Jansen

Team Manager:  Ronda Stryker

Fundraising Rep: Julie Horkey

PIST Rep: Liz VanderSloot

U10 Trainers:  Keith Kroll, Margaret von Steinen

always rely on your coach for the latest news

U-10 GIRLS FINISH UNDEFEATED AT 2001 PORTAGE TOURNEY! Congratulations to the girls on their fantastic performance at the Portage Invitational Soccer Tournament July 14-15.

Although they lost more games than they won in the WMYSA season, the girls never gave up and kept working to make themselves better soccer players. The fun and hard work that occurred all year long culminated in an impressive performance at the season-ending Portage tourney.

In the first game, the U10-Stinson girls faced a strong Brighton Eclipse team and weathered a flurry of late shots to prevail 2-1. Then they showed off a little against another first-year team from Canton on their way to an 8-0 victory. On Sunday,  they avenged several regular-season losses to local rival Portage-Jarrad by defeating them 2-1. Final tourney record: 3-0.  Brighton Eclipse finished 2-1, Portage-Jarrad 1-2, and Canton Tomahawks 0-3  Great goin' girls!!

GIRLS EARN MONEY FOR LAKESIDE.  Did you know the U-10 players have been working on the field to earn money for the Lakeside Treatment and Learning Center?  Several coaches and parents have been donating a set amount for every goal scored, every shot taken, and every half they shut out an opponent.  Several players have also chipped in with some of their allowance money.  Over the course of the season, these donations have accumulated to over $200.00!  The team decided to use the money to purchase a kayak, and the Johnstons matched that gift with a second Kayak, and the Laughing Gull Marina donated yet another kayak.  The three kayaks were presented to Lakeside on Monday Aug 13.

U10 GIRLS FACE U10 BOYS TEAMS AT TRAVERSE CITY TOURNEY.  The Summer Solstice Tournament at Traverse City June 9-10 was a good experience because the girls found out they could compete with boys.  The tournament director saw "Portage Lightning" on the application and was so excited to see what he thought was a strong opponent for his son's U10 team, which had easily won all their games all season, that he didn't notice we were a girls team.  The brackets were set, and like the good sports they are, the girls played the scheduled games against the three strongest boys teams who registered (out of 18 U10 teams in total).  The boys prevailed in all three games, but the Portage Girls played strong, and earned the respect of their opponents by making each game closer than anyone expected.  To make up for their mistake, the tournament directors scheduled an extra game for us against another girls team, and even though it was our third game that day, the Portage girls prevailed 2-0.  All parents, players, and coaches deserve a pat on the back for good behavior on the field and on both sidelines throughout the tournament, because we were awarded the Summer Solstice Sportsmanship Award, so kudos to everyone for that!

TRAINING:  Monday sessions with Coach Keith at Ramona Park and Thursday sessions with our team at Westfield Park are complete. Practices run from 5:30 to 7:00 and we ask that everyone arrive on time so they can participate in all the activities!  If you can't come to a practice, please notify one of the coaches so adjustments to the practice plan can be made (and to fill in your squares on the training chart). To see the latest practice schedule, click here.

Thanks to Coach Keith and Coach Margaret alike for the 8-week indoor training  program at KVCC.  It was both beneficial and fun!  We also appreciate our guest coaches Chris Keenan and Neil Ridgway for the indoor sessions, and Jim Rigdon for the outdoor session.  A special tanks to Keith Kroll for the excellent training he provided all year long.  The improvement in both U10 teams was evident as the season progressed.

TEAM FINANCIAL NEWS:  Coach Stinson has underwritten our team fees for the two tournaments we're going to.  Thanks to all families for paying on time, click here.

HOMEWORK:  All parents are asked to read the information handed out several weeks ago on nutrition and "team shape". Please use the nutrtional information to have your daughter prepared for games.  Please also go over parts of the handout on "shape" (position on the field) with your daughter in several small pieces rather than all at once.  Although we've asked parents not to coach from the sidelines, we would like to start exposing your child to some of these tactical concepts about team shape and movement; you can help by spending a little time at home talkinig about it (no more than a few minutes at a time).  If there's one take-home message it's that we generally want to spread out toward the touch lines on offense and "compact in" on defense.

Other homework that's fun to work on several times a week for 5 or 10 minutes is juggling and the "feints" or change-of-direction fakes we've been working on with the ball. Moves we've worked on the most include the scissors, double scissors, sole roll, and step-over (Coach Keith). We're also working on the croif, the cap, and what we call the "step-on step-over" (Coach Rigdon). Ask your daughter to pick one move to show you, and after she does it several times one direction, make sure she can do it the other direction with the opposite feet! Ask that she demonstratee and practice a different change-of-direction move each session with you. Everyone's time doing this will make us better players and a better team!

WMYSA GAME SCHEDULE SET:  To see our game schedule, click here.  To see a schedule of all WMYSA games, click here.  Note that the mysoccer.com schedule does not always show changes, so it is preferable to rely on our schedule (be sure to click refresh or update or reload to make sure it's current) and whatever you hear from your coach.  The convention for shirts in WMYSA is the home team wears light (white for us) and has to change if there's a conflict; so always bring both shirts.  Away team wears dark (gold for us) but ALWAYS BRING BOTH just in case.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL PLAYERS NEXT SEASON!!  Players from this year's U10 team will be on four different teams this fall. Click on the links for current news about these teams:  U11-Hermanutz, U11-Jarrad, U10-Jansen, U10-VanderSloot

 
for more Portage Soccer Club news, go to the Club's web site
 

  Spring 2001 Schedule
  Team Roster
  Team Information
  Training Attendance
  Finances
  Team Resume
  Photo Gallery

All team players and their families are invited to view our team's "personal website".  Please email TBrownOSU@aol.com for information on how to access it.  Here's a link to it.

 Portage Invitational Soccer Tournament 3-0-0 and the only undefeated U10 girls team

 TBAYS Summer Solstice Recreational Tournament 1-3-0 against three all-boys teams

 Spring 2001 WMYSA regular season 2-4-2 with a GF/GA of 15/19

 Winter 2001 Second Indoor session at SoccerZone 4-4-0

 Fall 2000 First Indoor session at SoccerZone 4-4-0

 Fall 2000 WMYSA regular season 1-6-1 and a good start for a young team

 2000 Metro Stars Global Soccer Tournament 1-2-0 against top-notch competition

NOTE:  for all WMYSA results and other cool soccer news, see mysoccer.com
   

Send comments or questions to us via e-mail at portagesoccer@worldnet.att.net.