This team has had one ultimate goal since its inception in the fall of 2004 - represent the State of Minnesota at the 2007 Region II Championships. Though personnel has changed over the years, the core group of this team has never lost sight of this target. I won't let them, for the reality of it is that the team goal is my goal.

This idea was nothing new to me as I had set a similar goal with the Woodbury Inferno girls in the fall of 2003. The team was entering its U12 year and I wanted to give them a long term goal to work towards. The girls trained hard, found tough, competitive leagues and events to participate in, took their beatings at State Cup in 2004 when playing up to the U13 age group as U12s (which included an 8-0 thrashing by the Tsunami Stars), then returned to the event in 2005 to be the class of the tournament, winning the trophy and moving on to Regionals. Though I wasn't coaching the group at that time, the hugs and smiles I received from the girls and their parents after the championship game said it all. They knew what they had gone through and they knew what they accomplished. Though no longer at the helm of the team, it was one of the best moments I've had in my coaching career. I had built strong relationships with this group (that continue on to this day) and I felt fortunate to be able to share in their joy right there when it happened.

So, I had this long term goal in mind the summer of 2004 when looking to form a U11 team that coming fall. I felt I had developed some good training ideas during the last three years coaching the Inferno and wanted to follow a similar goal-path with a new group. Moreover, I wanted to see if I could take a group of young girls and make them into a regional presence. That was my own personal ultimate goal; regional competitiveness. True regional competitiveness.

What is true regional competitiveness? Well, I was fairly confident that I could take the girls to a level where they would be relatively dominant at there age group here in MN as well as competitive with teams from the upper Midwest states of Wisconsin, Iowa, and North and South Dakota. With the exception of maybe FC Milwaukee, I felt we (Bangu Tsunami FC) had the edge on most other clubs from these states; more access to winter training facilities, better reputation in our respective areas to draw in talent, greater population base, etc.

But true regional competitiveness to me encompassed more than just the competition here in the upper Midwest. I wanted to see if I could develop a group of girls to compete with the Region II big dawgs - Chicago Magic (IL), Eclipse Select (IL), Michigan Hawks and VardarStars (MI), St Louis Soccer Club and JB Marine (MO), Blue Valley Stars (KS), Carmel (IA), and Warren County, Ohio Premier, and Internationals (OH). I relished in this challenge and have worked my tail off to try make it a reality.

We here in Minnesota are at a severe disadvantage as compared with the resources that these other clubs have at their disposal. Be it club owed facilities, their larger population bases to draw from, the greater number of qualified coaches in their ranks, more temperate climates in some cases, etc. No one really expects us to do much coming from the great white north, especially at the younger age groups.

Could I fail miserably in trying to reach for this ultimate goal? Absolutely. Would that suck? Kinda. Then why do it? Someone's gotta.

Tangent Thought

I don't claim to be better than any other coach or director out there in Minnesota today, and I don't claim that our club is better than every other club. How can one measure what I do with a very small percentage of kids in this area with what a director in a club dealing with thousands of young players does? True, my club teams tend to collect more hardware here in the area (as we should when drawing in talent from multiple areas and then coming up against teams made up of players from a single community), and true, our club touts our victories in order to help continue to attract talent to our member ranks, but local tournament success is not the success I am looking for with the teams I coach. It baffles me when people accuse me of stacking teams to win games. If this was what I was interested in, why would I work so hard to continually challenge my girls at older age groups? If some people's impression of me were tue, then I should be happy playing these girls at their own age group and winning every single tournament and state championship.

Now I want to win, don't get me wrong (see I Hate Losing). 99.9% of youth coaches, parents, and players themselves who claim they don't care about winning are all lying like a board. The only reason that a parent or coach doesn't know the score of a U8 Recreational soccer game is because they lost count.

I think this winning ambition is a good thing for the teams I deal with and I personally don't think there is anything wrong with this winning mentality in youth coaching. The problem occurs when the adult focus on winning and game results takes precedence over young players' development and enjoyment. There can be a balance and this balance is a key component to successful higher level teams (see Development AND Winning)

So back to the initial thought, I don't claim to be better than any other soccer person here in Minnesota. What I do stand behind is that our club is in place as a option to other clubs in this area and that our Blue (top) teams are in place to cater to the small percentage of soccer athletes interested in training to compete at the regional and national levels of the game. We are not better than local community associations, we are just different. We are simply offering what we feel is a needed alternate development opportunity in this area for those players and families who share our same vision.

End Tangent Thought

The 2007 State Cup was a far off event for the girls and their families back in 2004. The majority of the team had no idea what State Cup even was until I educated them. For the highest level teams in Minnesota, this is the single most important summer event as these teams are all looking to earn the honor of representing our state at the regional tournament. I was fairly confident that with hard work we would be in pretty good shape to take our State Cup in 2007 and felt this was a good target for the girls. It gave them something concrete to work towards and would be a constant light at the end of the tunnel.

A more challenging goal would have been to say that we wanted to be Regional Champions in 2007. However, I feel this is too unrealistic of a goal at this time. The goal of winning our State Cup gives the girls the ability to overshoot it be performing well at Regionals.

Now I'm sure some people who read this may think that this psychotic coach has used a bunch of girls to satisfy his own ambition... or something along those lines. I might agree with you to a point. However, my ambition, my drive and passion, have helped these girls immensely as I've likely gone above and beyond what most coaches are doing at this age group, all without EVER demanding winning/results over overall development.

To reach our ultimate goal, I've looked to set intermediate goals along the way. Some we've reached, other's we haven't.

As the years have gone on, I've added "Stretch Goals" to the mix. These are goals that I set that are not quite unrealistic, but are, in my mind, very tough to reach. There is no point in setting easy goals, or "Low Goals" as I call them. Yes, the girls would find "success" in reaching these Low Goals, but without reaching for new heights, stretching, these girls will never grow.

2004-2005 Season Goals

Establish ourselves as one of the top U11 teams in MN

 Advance to the 2004 Fall Harvest Fest Tournament - for exposure's sake

*Stretch Goal* Win the 3 major Minnesota tournaments at NSC (NSC Cup, All American Girls, USA Cup) - we lost in the semis at AAG

 Advance to the 2005 Summer State Tournament

 Win the 2005 Summer State Tournament - to lay claim to the top team in the area in order to help attract talent to our Academy program

 *Stretch Goal* Be a finalist in one Gold Level Regional event - Just For Girls Finalists (April - Des Moines, IA)

2005 - 2006 Season Goals

 Finish at least .500 in the East District U12 Classic 1 Boys League

 *Stretch Goal* Advance to the 2005 Harvest Fest Tournament (Boys U12)

 Win the 3 major Minnesota tournaments at NSC (NSC Cup, All American Girls, USA Cup) - we lost in the semis at AAG again playing up an age group

 Finish at least .500 in the East District U13 Classic 1 Girls League (an age group up)

 Beat the Renegades - we tied

 *Stretch Goal* Earn a U14 Girls Premier spot for 2007

 *Stretch Goal* Win the US Club Soccer Regionals in July - we lost in the finals to Internationals (OH)

 Advance to the 2006 Summer State Tournament

 Win one Gold Level Regional event - WDM Premier Games Champions (April - Des Moines, IA)

 *Stretch Goal* Finish the season ranked in the Top 10 in Region II* - we got as high as 6th, but didn't finish there

 *Stretch Goal* Finish the season ranked in the Top 20 in the Nation - we got up to 16th at one point

2006 - 2007 Season Goals

 *Stretch Goal* Advance out of group play at the Eclipse Challenge Cup

 Don't concede a goal at State Cup

 *Stretch Goal* Advance out of group play at either the Jefferson Cup or the Arsenal Elite Invitational

 Win the WDM Premier Games - we lost the final 4-2 against the Chicago Magic

 Place at least 2nd in the U14 Girls Premier League - we finished second behind Eden Prairie

 Beat the Eden Prairie U14 Premier team - we tied them 1-1 and lost 0-2 in our meetings this year

 *Stretch Goal* Advance out of group play at Regionals

 *Stretch Goal* Finish the season ranked in the Top 10 in Region II* - we finished the season ranked #1

2007 Region II Soccer Rankings

1. Bangu Tsunami FC Academy Blue (Minneapolis, MN)

2. Michigan Hawks 94 (Livonia, MI)

3. Chicago Magic 93/94 (Frankfort, IL)

4. St. Louis SC - Schmitt (St. Louis, MO)

5. Internationals (Cleveland, OH)

6. Michigan Gators Orange 94 (Troy, MI)

7. CUSC Academy 94 (Carmel, IN)

8. Ohio Premier Green (Columbus, OH)

9. Sockers FC (Palatine, IL)

10. Eclipse Select 93/94 (Libertyville, IL)

11. MTSC Blaze (Milford, OH)

12. Blue Valley Stars Ratpack (Overland Park, KS)

13. Grand Rapids Crew Juniors (Grand Rapids, MI)

14. Eclipse Select South 93/94 (Libertyville, IL)

15. Toledo Celtics (Toledo, OH)

16. St. Louis SC - Fine (St. Louis, MO)

17. Missouri Premier-Guion (St. Louis, MO)

18. NSA Premier Fury (Naperville, IL)

19. JB Marine - Mason (St. Louis, MO)

20. KCFC Alliance Heat (Overland Park, KS)

21. Javanon 94 (Louisville, KY)

22. CUP/Warren County United Blue (Warren County, OH)

23. Ohio Elite Soccer Academy (Cincinnati, OH)

24. Mequon SC Red (Mequon, WI)

25. N.E. Wisconsin United 94 (Appleton, WI)

26. Metro United - Bohnak (Collinsville, IL)

27. CUSC Premier Blue (Carmel, IN)

28. Chicago Fire Jrs (Naperville, IL)

29. Heartland Heat (Hartland, IA)

30. Lincoln United Fusion (Lincoln, NE)

 *Stretch Goal* Finish the season ranked in the Top 20 in the Nation - we finished the season ranked #2

2007 National Soccer Rankings

1. San Diego Surf White (San Diego, CA)

2. Bangu Tsunami FC Academy Blue (Minneapolis, MN)

3. FC Pennsylvania Strikers (Valley Forge, PA)

4. Dallas Texans Red 94 (Dallas, TX)

5. Mustang Rampage (Danville, CA)

6. PDA Charge (Zarephath, NJ)

7. Michigan Hawks 94 (Livonia, MI)

8. Sereno 94 White (Phoenix, AZ)

9. Chicago Magic 93/94 (Frankfort, IL)

10. CESA Premier (Greenville, SC)

11. Crossfire Premier 93 - Schilperoort (Redmond, WA)

12. Mount Laurel United Power (Mount Laurel, NJ)

13. Dallas Sting Royal 94 (Dallas, TX)

14. Charlotte SC Blue (Charlotte, NC)

15. Del Mar Sharks (Del Mar, CA)

16. FC Barcelona (Pasadena, CA)

17. St. Louis SC - Schmitt (St. Louis, MO)

18. Wall Wild Wombats (Wall, NJ)

19. Internationals (Cleveland, OH)

20. Michigan Gators Orange 94 (Troy, MI)

* www.nationalsoccerranking.com

Along with these larger goals, this year (2007) I've also begun to add Individual Game/Tournament Goals. Before each game/tournament, I give the girls personal goals to try and attain. These can vary from technical skill goals (Beat a player 1v1 and get a shot on goal.), tactical goals (From the center mid position, can you change the point of attack and play a wide defender in?), to team unity goals (This trip, can you sit with so-and-so during our team meal?).

All these 2006/2007 goals could not be made in August. As new plans are added, new goals are created. As some goals are reached, additional goals are set. Regardless, this goal setting has been an important factor in the girls' development and has helped the team bond together in pursuit of a common target.