May 24, 2010

Dear Alums,

Yesterday was graduation so campus will be pretty quite for a bit before summer school begins as well as the other things happening on campus like conferences and camps. For us here in the soccer office it is a good time to get some busy work done before we hit the road for recruiting as well as camps this summer.

Later this week we will be announcing our 2010 schedule that includes the NEWLY ESTABLISHED Ocean State Soccer Classic that will pit Providence, Brown, Bryant and ourselves in an intra-state tourney to kick off the season. This fall we will play matches against seven teams who participated in the 2009 NCAA Championships with one of our non-conference highlights being a game at the University of South Florida on Wednesday September 29th. USF was one of the top teams in the Big East last season and will be a tremendous challenge for us. The wonderful thing about this game is that USF is located in Tampa, FL, now the home of URI coaching legend Geza Henni.

As many of you are aware, one of my goals since coming to URI four seasons ago was to find a way to honor Geza for his long time service to URI men’s soccer. We have tried to get him to return to Kingston but he just not up making the trip as he is now in his 80’s. So, I would like to get some feedback on an idea my Assistant Mitch Stone came up with just recently.

What we propose is to put together a dinner in Tampa in honor of Geza the night before the game at USF which would be Tuesday September 28th. Our vision would be a reception and dinner followed by an opportunity for players from different eras speak about Geza, recalling memories of their experience playing for him. We would certainly give Geza a chance to speak too and would finish the night with a slide show and presentation of a gift (or gifts) to Coach Henni. It would be a great chance for former players and friends to come together and celebrate his contributions to University of Rhode Island soccer.

The next evening it would be great for those who are still in FL to attend the game and root on the Rams but if not then we certainly understand as being there for Geza is much more important to me at this point.

So, what do you think? I do realize this is midweek but this opportunity is just too great to pass up. I have run it by a couple of guys including Mike Stricklin and he believes that we can get a great turnout. If you would be willing to make the trip, then please email me to let me know. If you have any ideas about a gift or gifts for him then drop me a line too. I would love for it to be something significant and long lasting so keep that in mind…

Hope to hear from all of you soon,
OC