March 26, 2010

Dear Alums & Friends,

Greetings from Kingston! Spring is almost finished with the players are off until the 29th. A little time off from our winter training that began after the holiday break. It is well deserved for the work they did! The off-season is a great time for the guy’s to work on weaknesses and develop their strengths in preparation for the spring as well as next season. Our schedule utilized our NCAA maximum 8 hours with the team (2 hours of which a ball can be used) in combination of fitness, strength and technical training sessions. We were up at 6:30 am each morning working on the track on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays and in the gym for technical sessions on Tuesday and Thursdays. In addition we were in the weight room three days per week, played pick up on their own a couple of days as well as help us with our weekly Rams FC Youth Soccer Academy.

Next week after spring break we start training outside and play five scrimmage dates on the weekends to complete the non-traditional season. Here is the 2010 Spring Non-traditional season schedule:

April 3
@University of Southern New Hampshire (Manchester, NH)
4:00 pm

April 10
@UMass Spring Invitational (Amherst, MA)
vs Syracuse University - 11:00 am
vs University of Massachusetts - 2:30 pm

April 17
SIENA COLLEGE (Kingston, RI)

April 24
@College of the Holy Cross Invite (Worcester, MA)
vs Holy Cross - 10:00 am
vs University of Vermont - Noon

April 25
ALUMNI GAME (Kingston, RI)
Noon

April 28
BRYANT UNIVERSITY (Kingston, RI)
7:00 pm

As you can see it is a competitive schedule and an exciting time for our players as they prepare to pursue their goal of an Atlantic 10 Conference Championship and NCAA Tournament bid.

On the academic side of things we had over 100 student-athletes honored during half-time of the St. Bonaventure versus URI men’s basketball game for earning a place on the Deans List for the spring or fall of 2009. URI men’s soccer was represented well by senior Gary Crooks (Falkirk, Scotland), Juniors Matt Preyss (Chagrin Falls, OH), Michael Tanke (Niles, MI) and Dwayne Williams (Westmoreland, Jamaica) as well as sophomore Eric Hutson (St. Louis, MO). Prior to the game URI President David Dooley addressed the group at a reception held in the Alumni room of the Ryan Center. It was a nice event and I was very proud of our guy’s for setting such a good example for the rest of the squad.

On the alumni front we have a lot to report beginning with Adam Howarth ’08 who joined us this winter for a couple of training session prior to participating in some professional trials in England. He played last season with AC Kajani in Finland but decided not to return. While he was here, we also got him to confirm the rumor that he is engaged. Ross Smith ‘03, who has recovered fully from surgery to correct a congenital heart defect that delayed his signing with Major League Soccer a year ago. He has worked himself back and has now found a home with the Portland Timbers. The Timbers are scheduled to be the next MLS expansion team. Speaking of MLS, Houston Dynamo All-Star Geoff Cameron ’08 received an invite into the United States National Team training camp in January and earned his first cap for US National Team in a World Cup friendly versus Guatemala at the beginning of the month. In other news former URI Assistant Coach Pat Laughlin was recently named the head coach at interstate rival Brown University. Pat was with us in 2006 but left to become the Head Men’s Coach at our alma mater University of Maine until they abruptly cut the program in the spring of 2009. He takes over from former coach Mike Noonan who left this winter for Clemson University. On the home front URI Director of Soccer Operations Frank Bergren will be retiring from teaching this spring after over 20 years in the Westerly School system. Bergs assured us that he’ll continue working with our program and we are happy to hear it because he has been an invaluable part of our staff.

Alumni, parents and Friends of URI Soccer, you are cordially invited to attend our 2009-2010 Team Banquet on Saturday May 1st at 12 Noon at the Institute for International Sport. The luncheon will be the final event of the academic year and a chance for us to honor players from the 2009 squad with our teams awards including the third annual Ed Bradley Alumni Service Award, recognition of the class of 2009 as well as the first screening of the highlight video which is always fun. Tickets are $10.00 per person and can be purchased by contacting Assistant Coach Mitch Stone at stone@mail.uri.edu. Donations for the banquet from those who cannot attend will be gladly accepted.

FORMER URI RAMS don’t forget the Alumni game Sunday April 25 at 12 Noon here at the URI Soccer Complex. The game as always pits our present players versus the veterans followed by a BBQ for players, family and supporters sponsored by the “Friends of Men’s Soccer”. I will send you another reminder in the next couple of weeks but until then pass the word and drop us a line back to let me know you will be attending. Please include any the names of family, friends or guests will be coming with you so we make sure we order enough food for everyone.

Before I sign off a reminder to alums to make sure you go to www.frontrush.com/URI in order to update your alumni profile on our new on-line database through a company called Frontrush. We are using it for recruiting as well as to keeping in contact with you our alums and the other “Friends of URI Soccer”. So, please help us to keep in touch with you and your friends, classmates and teammates.

Well, that is about it for now. Hope to see you all down the road in the very near future. Look out for more news down the road including our 2010 schedule as well as the URI class of 2010.

GO RAMS!
Coach O’C