Dear Friends & Alumni,
WHEW! It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks here, so I thought I would give you a quick update with what has been going on here in URI soccer land...
First, as many of you know, my assistant Gareth Elliott was recently named the head coach at Siena College. He's been around this week saying his farewells, although we know he will not be too far away.
We had a great sending off event last Saturday over at Charlie O's in Narragansett. I have to thank Chris Simon for his hospitality in helping us with the arrangements and for his generosity in providing food for this crew. Although we had to cancel our little testimonial game in the morning because of some facility issues here, we had over 50 people in attendance, including alums Aidan Byrne and his wife (Aidan is going to be a dad very soon), Jesse Simmons, Michael Bradley and his sons Logan & Keegan, Kevin Kennedy, Corey Sullivan, Lukasz Tumicz, Danleigh Borman, Dawid Badecki, Callum Bissett, Mike Stricklind, Nancy Stricklind , Mike Rogers, Dennis Richards as well as Terry and Trish Casey.
Doug Stone, Ben Smith, Brian Bradley, Steve & Kyle Froberg, Paul Fanning and Pat Maguire also would have been there if it was not for the schedule change and some conflicts.
Also in attendance from the athletic department were Paul Kassabian (compliance), Ted Romanosky (equipment manager), Mitzi Dusin (athletic trainer), Jim Foster (baseball coach), Jodi Pontbriand (sports information), Lauren Goley (athletic trainer), Michelle Levreault (athletic trainer), Angie Farine (athletic trainer), Liz Proctor (strength coach), Denise King (assistant women's basketball coach), Donna Perrault (business office) and Mike Laprey (sports information director) as well as Frank, Wendy, Molly and Emily Bergren and Dr. John Sullivan (sports psychologist).
So, you can see it was a great crew. I received a lot of terrific e-mails from people wishing Gareth well as they couldn't make it because of distance or schedule conflicts.
I also want to thank Russell Blank, Michael Bradley, Terry & Trish Casey, Jeanette Gonsalves and her family, Mike & Nancy Stricklin, track & field coach John Copeland, academic advisor Winkle Kelly, Corey Sullivan and the Pryess family for their and others' generous contributions that helped us raise over $1,000 which will be donated to the program in Gareth's name - a very nice tribute to an incredible player, dedicated alum and talented coach!
Of course the exciting news on the soccer front was the drafting of Geoffrey Cameron, Danleigh Borman and Lukasz Tumicz into Major League Soccer. Geoffrey and Lukasz were invited to the MLS Combine in early January and the big fella from Attleboro, MA was subsequently drafted in the 3rd round of the MLS Superdraft by the 2007 MLS Champion Houston Dynamo. Lukasz and Danleigh were selected in the supplemental draft this past Thursday, with our South African friend being selected as the 7th overall pick by the New York Red Bull while the Polish wonder boy went 34th to the Columbus Crew. We are very excited for them as well as for Callum Bissett who will be going to training camp for the USL Harrisburg City Islanders very shortly. What a great class and tribute for URI men's soccer!
The last bit of news I wanted to share before signing off is that at the Atlantic 10 Conference soccer meeting during the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) convention in Baltimore, the University of Rhode Island was named the 2009 ATLANTIC 10 CHAMPIONSHIP HOST SCHOOL! We are ecstatic about this opportunity as we haven't hosted since 2000!
We have a lot of work and planning to do though - including finishing the DUGOUT & SCORERS BOOTH PROJECT... if this isn't incentive for all of us I don't know what is!
Well, that is about it now... a lot of news but all of the exciting kind! The players are back on campus and we begin our winter training next week. Before you know it we will be back on the field playing.
And speaking of playing... keep an eye on the web site for our spring schedule. The annual ALUMNI GAME & TEAM BANQUET IS SATURDAY MARCH 29th AT 1:00 PM, so start getting fit and making your plans to be here!
GO RAMS!
Coach O'C
P.S. DON'T FORGET THE 12th ANNUAL ALUMNI GOLF OUTING IS MONDAY AUGUST 11th AT FENNER HILL GOLF CLUB IN HOPE VALLEY, RI! START PRACTICING AND GET YOUR FOURSOMES READY!