Nice Spring Weather

We cancelled training tonight due to cold temps, wind, and freezing rain/snow. 

I had emailed the Chicago Fire Jrs, the host club for our first weekend of MRL play, to verify that the weekend was still on as planned.  There was a major weather pattern developing over the Midwest and forecast for the weekend wasn't very promising for the Chicago-land area.  

I received a phone call from the Fire around 5PM, informing me that they were bailing on the event this weekend.  Couldn't blame them.  They are looking at the weekend of May 3rd and Memorial Day Weekend as possible re-schedule weekends.  We'll be in Portland for the Nike Manchester Cup over the May holiday weekend, so that's out for sure.

The issue we have with the 3rd is that this is the ODP Festival for my girls' age groups.  ODP always says club soccer comes first, but I know it will be difficult for my girls to miss the weekend and still get consideration.  Not that I don't think the ODP people don't trust my judgement or recommendations on which girls on my team should be given consideration, but they open themselves up for a political battle with others should they allow my girls to participate without attending the evaluation weekend.  With MRL, League play, and MN State Cup, our free weekends for re-scheduled travel are few and far between from here on out.  This one could get a little interesting. 

17 for 17 After Final ODP Cuts

Final roster cuts came out yesterday for the 93, 94, and 95 ODP age groups.  I was very happy to see that all 17 girls on the team were recognized as top players in their respective age group pools by the state ODP staff and were all Region Camp Selections for ODP camp in July.

To the best of my knowledge, this marks the first time in MN soccer history that an entire club team is comprised of all MN ODP players.  This is a testament to the effort and commitment the girls have made over the last few years, as well as a testament to the Bangu Tsunami club, the quality of the selection process used to form teams as well as the to the club's structured, year round training program.

93 Girls (18 girls selected)

• Brownie
• Bidi
• Mudd
• Lily
• Sting
• Jilly
• Becs
• Blondie
• Hannah

94 Girls (36 girls selected)

• Sophie
• Getch
• Scratch
• Macky
• Nash
• Maddie
• Ripper

95 Girls (64 selected)

• Millie

17 Girls Selected for ODP Pools

I took some flak from some other club coaches last weekend for encouraging the girls to take part in the Saturday ODP Festival in Stillwater the morning of what I (and many) felt could be one of, if not the toughest game we'd have this year in State Cup.  Things worked out well that evening with a 2-0 win at State Cup, and yesterday I found out things worked out well on the ODP end of things as all 17 girls were named to their respective 93, 94, and 95 (yes, we have a 95 on this team) pool groups. 

I know many of the girls were nervous about this ODP tryout and many of the parents (and the girls) were hesitant to participate initially with the thought that some girls might not make the pool while many of their teammates would.  In the end, all the girls decided to give it a go for the experience and I was proud to see all their names on the final selection lists.

I'm not exactly sure where they go from here and I think that there will be more cuts at the older age groups to finalize an ODP group that will head to Illinois for region camp, but the confidence and experience gained by prevailing through this first stage challenge will benefit all the players in the long run.

ODP Tryouts

With 200+ girls at the 94 age group battling for 42 spots (with possibly just as many at the 93 age group), I wanted to try and give my girls some ideas about tryout performance for the ODP Festival on Saturday.  All 17 players will be attending and it will be interesting to see what the final selection will be for the ODP pools.

I came up with a short list of things the girls should focus on on Saturday, and emailed out a Keys to a Successful ODP Tryout PDF to the team.  I took some things from a similar handout I saw on the web, and added a few other thoughts from my own experience as I've done my share of ODP evaluations as well as club tryouts/evaluations.  Though I know all coaches see players differently, a majority of coaches/evaluators look for certain traits in players.  I'm not saying that everyone is looking for exactly the same things that I've listed here, but this information would likely be of benefit to our girls participating. 

I've made these thoughts available here in case any readers have daughters participating this weekend as well.  Some of the stuff is only appropriate to us (Confidence Buddies, Leave It Behind Trigger, etc), but most of the stuff is generic. 

State Cup Game #1 vs Wayzata

Well, Kare11 had predicted late evening storms and for once they were right.  The fog horn sounded just after 7PM on Monday, suspending game play due to severe weather in the area.  We were hopeful that we would get in the 8:00PM games, but mother nature wasn't in a very cooperative mood.

Around 8:10PM, the decision was made to postpone the 7:30PM and 8:00PM games until Saturday, May 5.  An inconvenience for sure, but nothing much to be done about it.

The issue that we now face with this change however is that May 5th is the scheduled date for the ODP Festival.  There were a lot of questions from parents in Coon Rapids and via phone/email on Monday night about whether or not I would allow the girls to do ODP because of this schedule change.   All 17 girls will take part in the ODP event and that means that we will not have 100% fresh legs later that day.  Wayzata (or opponents) is sure to have a number of their stronger players involved as well, unless their families decide not to send their girls to participate.

I sent an email out to the team yesterday saying, in a nutshell, the State Cup is important to the team this year, but I believe ODP involvement will have long term benefits down the road.  My only other words to them were to encourage their girls to keep hydrated on Saturday and to make sure that the girls get off their feet and rest on Saturday afternoon. 

So, with the change in schedule, we'll train tonight (Wednesday), play a scrimmage vs the Woodbury U13 boys tomorrow, take Friday off and see what happens on Saturday (when again weather forecasts don't look great).