My goal was to have the U11 WSA Magic, along with the U12 WSA Renegades, be the flagship groups for the newly formed Woodbury Soccer Academy (WSA).  Both teams boasted talented athletes from multiple geographic areas and would likely bring recognition, based on league/tournament results, to the Academy program.  After the Woodbury Soccer Club board voted to terminate the WSA program after the initial fall season (read about this here), these two teams became the flagship teams for the newly formed Bangu Tsunami Soccer Academy program based in the Woodbury area. 

Suffice it to say that the transition to the Bangu Tsunami Futbol Club (BTFC) in October and November of 2004 was challenging.  I felt responsible for all the families (as I should have) who chose to leave the safety of the Woodbury Athletic Association and follow me into the relative unknown territory of founding new soccer club.  I spent countless hours forming the new MYSA affiliate club, starting the non-profit entity (Bangu Tsunami Soccer Academy East), setting up training programs, team budgets, schedules, curriculum, securing training sites, ordering new training gear and uniforms, etc.  On top of all this, my fiance and I were getting married on November 13.  Though I mentioned to her that we might want to think about postponing the wedding until after all the soccer stuff settled down, she had a contrary opinion. 

Anyway, in the end everything sorted itself out.  We secured training space at Acceleration East in Oakdale, we reserved five hours of gym time at Valley Crossing Middle School in Woodbury, and found 3 days a week at the Bielenberg Sports Center in Woodbury.  We also found space to run a number of Winter Benefit Festivals for the Academy as I tried to find positive ways in which to let the soccer world know that we existed.

Though this team had had success in the fall of 2004 at their age group (U11), there were a few close games.  Specifically, and Eagan team and and Eden Prairie team gave us some tough battles.  We beat Eagan 2-0 in league and beat EP 2-1 n league and later 2-0 in the Fall State Championship game.  We were the better team in each game, though not by much.

I feel the winter training that the Magic participated in during the following winter months played a HUGE role in the player's development.  The girls took part in the following:

• Technical/Athletic Training at Acceleration East (Oakdale)
• Futsal Training at Valley Crossing (Woodbury)
• Street Soccer at Bielenberg (Woodbury)
• Field Training at Bielenberg (Woodbury) and SCV Rec Center (Stillwater)
• League Play at Bielenberg (Woodbury)
• Festivals, Friendlies and Winter Tournaments (various locations)

As I go into later, this training program allowed the Magic to beat Eagan (a number of times ) and EP handily in future meetings.

I had not forgotten about Sarah, the talented girl from Hastings (see Fall 2004 - WSA Magic).  I had been in phone contact with her family in November and December, and In January she decided to come and check us out.  After a month, her and her family decided to make the move to our club, so we maxed out the roster at fourteen.