Greetings from URI Men's Soccer,
Hope all is well and you are enjoying the winter months. I just returned from Florida where I was on vacation with my family. It was a nice diversion and a chance for my kids to see both sets of grandparents who are down there for a few months. With the weather here in Rhode Island as of late being fairly fickle, I am not sure if I would prefer to have the snow over rain so I will be careful what I wish for... I know my kids would love to have one last snow storm to build a snowman and go sledding.
Things have been busy here in Kingston with the team as we're finishing up our NCAA-allowed eight hours per week of training. Although it is great to keep connected with the team over the winter months, we can't wait until after spring break to practice outside.
Speaking of spring, below is our non-traditional schedule which we think is a pretty good test for the guys:
Sunday, April 1
Southern Connecticut State University
New Haven, CT
12:00 Noon
Saturday, April 14
University of Massachusetts Spring Tourney
(vs. Hartwick, Army & UMass)
Amherst, MA
10:00 am start
Thursday, April 19
UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT
Kingston, RI
6:00 pm
Saturday, April 21
Boston University
Boston, MA
1:00 pm
Wednesday, April 25
UMASS-LOWELL
Kingston, RI
7:00 pm
Saturday, April 28
ALUMNI GAME
Kingston, RI
1:00 pm
We will have fairly small squad due to the loss of our seniors, an injury to junior Dan Lucas (broken foot) and with juniors Dawid Badecki and Callum Bissett abroad for the semester in Prague. They are both in the International Business program here, so this is a great experience for them and it should be fun to hear all about it when they return!
Anyway, before I sign off I wanted to let you know how excited we are to be holding our inaugural Rhode Island Elite Soccer Academy camps for youth and high school players this spring and summer here on campus. The first will be an April school vacation half day camp (co-ed, April 16-20) from 8:45 a.m. - 12:00 noon. Then we will hold a day camp (co-ed, June 25-29) and an overnight camp (July 21-24) for boys grades 9-12. The Elite Residential Academy will hopefully help our recruiting as it allows those who are serious about soccer (and also playing at URI) to visit campus, stay in the residence halls, eat in the dining halls, meet our players, work with our staff and of course be evaluated. I am sure the participants will make some friends too!
If you want more information or know someone who would be interested go to our website at http://gorhody.cstv.com/sports/m-soccer/uri-m-soccer-body.html. We hope you can attend and learn more about us!
Well, take care and feel free to give me a call or drop me an e-mail if you have any questions or we can do anything for you. I will drop you a line later in the spring with my recruiting schedule for the summer.
Sincerely,
Coach O'C