August 26, 2010

Dear Alumni & Friends,

Hope your summer has been going well and you’ve taken advantage of the season to its’ fullest. Sorry for not being in touch for a bit but I’ve switched over to a new computer and just recently got my email lists transferred. Well we are officially finished with week one of pre-season today and I can say that I’m very happy with what I’ve seen so far in training. We have a great group of returners and our newcomers, who come from all over, have integrated themselves in very well.

We’ve had some great practices in spite of the incredible amount of rain that we have had over the past few days. It has helped the practice field (which is pretty hard) and in turn the guys' legs have been saved a bit. The pre-season has been very productive on many fronts, starting with some team building and leadership training led by Assistant Coach Mitch Stone’s father Greg. Greg is the former Dean of Students at Castleton State College and was a Student Development professional for over 35 years until he retired this past June. I was fortunate enough to work for Greg and his wife Lil as an undergraduate RA, graduate student hall director and then professional residence hall director. I have always held Greg in high regard for his knowledge of leadership development. We had a good couple of days with him and the boys learned a lot about themselves and each other.

The other special event the guys were treated to was a dinner held by Trish & Terry Casey at their home in Wakefield, RI. Terry is a former URI player (1985 grad) and Trish is a URI alum and now Assistant Controller for the University. They are tremendous supporters and friends of our program and were kind enough to have the team as well as some other friends of the program along including Dean of the Business School Mark Higgins and his wife, the Pesante family, Trish’s sister and husband as well as Bob & Anne Kuklinski, parents of Parker Kuklinski ‘14.

Anyway, this past Monday we had our first scrimmage versus UNH and were on the positive end of at 2-1 score. Senior co-captain Matt Preyss (Chagrin Falls, OH) opened up the scoring in the first half off assists from classmate Jon Pereira (Barrington, RI) and Tom Palmer (Hummelstown, PA) off a corner. After a slow start, the guys got ahold of the game and created a number of good chances throughout the match - including a near header goal by Franco LoPresti (Scarborough, Ontario).

The second half was a great build up and a switch of play resulted in our second goal scored by sophomore forward Thomas Lindroos (Espoo, Finland). He was set up by a very decisive pass played across the face of the Wildcat goal by sophomore midfielder Matt Ribbens (Tinley Park, IL). It was great timing all around and Thomas slid in and smashed it home.

In the later stages of the half, New Hampshire mounted a couple of good chances including a semi-breakaway that was snuffed out by sophomore goalkeeper Adam Blanchard (Scarborough, ME). UNH finally got on the board with a goal of their its with less than 10 seconds remaining but it was too little, too late for the visitors.

We play our final exhibition game of the pre-season on Friday August 27th at 7:00 pm against University of Western New England here at the URI soccer complex. Following that we taper down our workouts and get ready for the regular season opener on Thursday September 2nd at 1:00 pm versus Providence College in the first round of the Ocean State Soccer Classic. The home opener is Saturday September 18th at 7:00 pm pitting your Rams against former URI standout Gareth Elliott ‘02 and his Siena College Saints in our Second Annual Grassroot Soccer fundraiser game. You can see the remainder of the schedule at http://www.gorhody.com.

Before I sign off, some quick news from the alumni front. Hopefully you all got to see Geoff Cameron ‘08 make his first start back for the Houston Dynamo versus the New England Revolution after injuring his PCL at the beginning of the Major League Soccer season. Many of us who saw the game thought he had a great match in the loss and looked so strong and comfortable. Our other MLSer Danleigh Borman ‘08 has a couple of new teammates at New York Red Bull as the club signed both French International Thierry Henry and his former FC Barcelona teammate Rafael Marquez. I can imagine that the training sessions must be unbelievable and can’t wait to hear from DB about them. Former URI captain Callum Bissett ‘08 is returning to Kingston to pursue a Masters Degree. We are excited to have him back where we will get him involved in the program in some capacity. Speaking of returning to Kingston, you will notice a familiar name on the roster as Chris Pennock ‘10 has joined the Rhody staff as a volunteer coach. Got a nice email from Vince McCrudden ‘83 with his best wishes as well as let me know he is moving to China for a year or so for business. I’m sure you all join me in wishing him safe travels. Finally, got a visit from Joe Spofford’ 07 last weekend as he was in RI visiting friends. He is working for the United Way in DC and continues to play on a couple of teams around Washington.

Last but not least keep your eyes peeled for a “Meet & Greet” alumni event graciously sponsored by Chris Simon and Charlie O’s Tavern in Narragansett. It will be a great chance for you all to meet the 2010 team as well as catch up with your former teammates and friends. We are presently working on a date and will let you know the details as soon as we can. Take care and we hope to see you soon…

GO RAMS!
Coach O’C

P.S. Check out senior midfielders Michael Tanke’s blog called “Tuesdays with Tanke”. You can see the first installment as well the all his rants during the season at www.gorhody.com.