Portage Soccer Club U11-Jansen Girls Team

Coaches:  Norman Jansen, Adolfo Escamilla, Marshon Humphries

Managers:  Lisa Wolf and Laurie Postmus

Goalkeeper Trainer: Jess Wijsman

Fundraising Rep: Steve Johnson

Portage Tourney Rep: Jeanie Lewis

Independent Parent Rep: Jennifer Schatz

                                                                  click on image to enlarge

always rely on your coaches for the latest news

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL PLAYERS. You capped of a great year by making it to the final game at the season-ending Portage Invitational Soccer Tournament. Northville Premier Orange showed us how good we can be if we keep playing and practicing and giving our best effort. Your coaches and parents are very pleased with your progress this year, and we hope you continue to strive to improve. For a photo of the Portage tourney finalists, click here. Congratulations again on a great year, and have fun next season!

SPRING TRAINING SESSIONS UNDERWAY. Regular practices continue Mondays and Thursdays from 5:15 to 6:45 at Westfield Park (east goal). No practice Memorial Day. To faciliate transportation across town, please take advantage of the car-pool map that was handed out at the team meeting. Click here to see complete practice schedule.

CONCESSION STAND / FIELD CLEAN-UP DUTY SUNDAY MAY 11 from 3:00 to 5:30. Everyone will be asked to help in some way on this day. See the purple sheet handed out at the spring Team Meeting for more details.

TEAM PICTURES WEDNESDAY APRIL 23 at 6:20 sharp at Portage West Middle School. Please wear your home gold/yellow shirt, with black shorts and socks, and be present no later than 6:10 pm so we can line up and be ready to go.

PLAYER EVALUATIONS will be handed out to parents the first week of April. Please read the cover letter completely before you discuss these with your daughter.. If there are any questions, don't hesitate to call me or you can email me at work.

TOURNEY FEES DUE: We're playing in the Canton Cup 2003 Memorial Day weekend (no games Monday though!), and the Portage Soccer Classic June 14-15. I've already paid the entry fee for both tourneys, so everyone please write a check for $45.00 made out to Norman Jansen at your earliest convenience (that's $375 for Canton and $300 for Portage). Laurie and Lisa will be contacting you about arrangements for the hotel in Canton. If you don't need a room Friday and Saturday, or are sharing with someone else, please call Laurie ASAP so your credit card doesn't get charged.

PSC NEEDS YOUR HELP to raise needed money to pay for the wonderful fields we're playing on. If you're not already participating in the Certificate program, this is an EASY way to raise money that doesn't cost anything other than a few minutes of your time. Certificates work just like gift certificates you buy for yourself, except the Club gets a kickback for every dollar used. Certificates are conveniently available at the concession stand this spring. For more information, click here.

SPRING WMYSA SCHEDULE IS SET. The WMSYA regular season starts April 12 at 3:00 pm and runs through June 7-8 at River Oaks. Don't forget the Canton tourney Memorial Day Weekend and the Portage Tourney June 14-15. For the complete Spring schedule for our team, and for maps to the fields, click here. To see the schedules of all WMYSA teams at U11 or any age, click here. Note that the mysoccer.com schedule may not show all 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 coaches.  The convention for shirts in WMYSA is the home team wears light (gold for us) and has to change if there's a conflict; so always bring both shirts. Away team wears dark (green for us) but ALWAYS BRING BOTH just in case. Since most Portage players prefer the gold shirts, we'll sometimes wear them at road games as long as they're different enough from the other team's home colors. Listen to what you hear from your coaches.

THANKS TO MIKE HAINES, JIM RIGDON, CARL GRUBB, AND FRANK HERMANUTZ for the excellent indoor training sessions the past six weeks. We appreciate the all the good tips and the fun games you taught us!

THE FALL SEASON WAS A SUCCESS! The girls can look back on a fun first half of the U11 year, with more to come this spring. They played aggressively and with good determination throughout the WMYSA season and at the Socctoberfest tournament. We're making steady progress on improving our dribbling, passing, receiving, and shooting skills. We're also learning how to keep our team "shape" on the field to more effectively use the width of the field to our advantage. Part of this is learning to trust our teammates to be in the right place at the right time, and by working together, we're becoming a true TEAM.  We all have a lot to learn, and that's what makes it fun to keep playing and practicing. We also learned that even when we make mistakes, it's ok and we'll keep playing and doing it a little better the next time.  The coaches are very happy with the effort everyone gave and the way everyone played this fall, and we're looking forward to a fun Spring!.

CHECK OUT THE TEAM PHOTO GALLERY. Photos have been posted in our new team photo gallery (STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION). If you have additional photos you'd like to include, please contact Coach Jansen I'll get them posted.

SOCCTOBERFEST 2002.  All 15 players travelled to the Indianapolis area for the Socctoberfest Tournament in Zionsville October 13-14.  The weather cooperated all weekend, and by defeating the Maumee Express and Zionsville Strikers on Saturday, the girls clinched a spot in the afternoon final against the Westfield Lightning after a morning game that turned out to be an exhibition game. Westfield had some strong legs and they switched fields effectively on us, scoring two weak-side goals in the first half and cruising to a 4-nil victory. It was a good experience for the girls from Portage, and they'll not soon forget what happens when the weak side players are left unmarked. A special thanks to Laurie Postmus for the excellent accomodations! Everyone had a great time in Indy!

SOCCTOBERFEST U11 FINALISTS  Front row (from left): Sandra Thorarensen, Stacy Cohen, Jessica Simpson. Middle row: Stephanie Johnson, Megan Putnam, Sidney Helmer, Jordan Wolf. Third row: Megan McQueen, Mataya Lewis, Claire Sorek, Shelby Humphries, Courtney Postmus, Maria Escamilla, Erika Jansen, Liz Ruimveld. Back row: coaches Adolfo Escamilla, Norm Jansen, and Marshon Humphries

THE M.I.L.D. CUP in Hastings was a great way to kick off the fall season. As a new team with six players just beginning their first year of travel soccer (and three younger girls playing up a year), the girls got to know each other very quickly and managed to play well enough to defeat the CATS from Caledonia, the Sailors from Mona Shores, and a strong Lakeshore United team before falling to the other Portage team in the final. Click here to see the Team Photo at Hastings. Congratulations on a great start!

HOMEWORK:  Something that's fun to work on every day for five or so minutes is juggling and fast footwork variations of "happy feet". The first step in juggling is to be able to strike the ball a single time with either foot or either thigh and pop it back straight up to a height about level with your head, and then catch it and do it again.  Since most of us don't want soccer balls flying around in the house, consider buying one of those nerf balls or a small beach ball so your daughter can use her feet more around the house. My daughter likes to dribble a tennis ball around the house, and she knows that's ok as long as she doesn't juggle that inside, or kick it hard. If you have a wall in an unfinished basement where they can safely play, that's another place to make accurate side-of-the-foot passes on the ground, and pepper (volley) against the wall to improve eye-to-foot coordination. Every minute spent doing this around the house will make us better players and a better team!  Five minutes of practice every day makes us better every week!

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

  Spring 2003 Schedule (games and practices)
  Team Roster
  Team Information
  Photo Gallery New!

To see more information about last year's U-10 girls team, click here.

Portage Lightning Team Resume
 

 Spring 2003 WMYSA regular season: 5-1-2 and plenty of closely contested matches

 Canton Cup 2003: 1-2-0 and great experience against two top teams (GRASA White and Canton Premier)

 Winter 2003 third Indoor session at SoccerZone: 4-4-0 in the U14 girls select league

 Winter 2002 second Indoor session at SoccerZone: 4-3-1 in the U11 girls select league

 Fall 2002 first Indoor session at SoccerZone: 7-0-1 in the U11 girls select league

 Fall 2002 WMYSA regular season: 6-2-0 and eight well-played contests.

 Fall 2002 Socctoberfest Tournament: Finalist at Zionsville Indiana

 2002 M.I.L.D. Cup: Finalist at Hastings, Michigan

 Summer 2002 Portage Invitational Soccer Tourney: 2-2-0 and a wakeup call

 2002 Flint Publisher's Cup: 2-2-0 and a good experience.

 Spring 2002 WMYSA regular season: 8-0-0 and an impressive spring

 Winter 2002 second Indoor session at SoccerZone: 6-2-0 in the U10 girls select league

 Fall 2001 first Indoor session at SoccerZone: 2-6-0 in the U10 boys league

 Fall 2001 WMYSA regular season 4-3-1 and a good start for a young team

 Fall 2001 Socctoberfest Tournament 3-0-0 in the U10-White division

 2000-2001 U10-Stinson team a great season and 3-0-0 at the Portage Invitational Tourney

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

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