2006 - 2007 winter newsletter

LOWER MERION SOCCER CLUB

2006 - 2007 WINTER NEWSLETTER

Box 360, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010 610-527-3940

[email protected] www.lmsc.net

2006 LMSC FALL SEASON ROUNDUP

LMSC would like to thank the Lower Merion Township and the Lower Merion School District for again allowing us to use their fields this fall. Thanks to them, we were able to have over 2300 children playing soccer this fall. As always, our fall program was about diversity, offering travel teams that played at different levels, an intramural program that included 14 different divisions and our Special Needs Program. This newsletter will review many of the different programs that were in action this fall.

LMSC HAS A NEW MAILING ADDRESS

This fall we have begun phasing out our Gladwyne mailing address. Going forward, all correspondence should be mailed to LMSC, Box 360, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010.

LMSC RECEIVES 501 (C) (3) STATUS In August, LMSC was informed by the IRS that it qualified for full 501 ( C) (3) status. Please see our article on page 14 to see how this affects our organization.

CANNIBALS WIN FOURTH STRAIGHT DELCO LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP

The LMSC Cannibals, our Under 12A boys travel team won their fourth consecutive Delco League championship. The Cannibals are the first team in club history to win four consecutive league championships. Their story can be found on page 4 of this newsletter.

HEART, LASERS, CHARGE AND MISFITS WIN LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIPS

In addition to the Cannibals, four other travel teams won league championships this fall. Most notable was the LMSC Heart, our U-12A girls team, who won the PAGS League championship for the third time in four season. Stories on many of our travel teams can be found on pages 2 through 8.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE Boys Travel Team Program Roundup 2 Girls Travel Team Program Roundup 6 2006 Fall Travel Team Program Roundup 9 2006 Under 8 Developmental Travel Team Academy 9 Twenty-Five Years Coaching In LMSC 10 2007 Spring Intramural Program Information 13 Travel Team League Champions Honor Roll 14 LMSC Receives 501 (C) (3) Status 14 2006 Intramural All Star Game Participants 15 Coach Of The Year Awards 18 Coach, Team And Program Evaluation Survey 19 A Special Thank You To The Many People Who Made 2006 A Success 19

2006 - 2007 LMSC Officers Biff Sturla President Marty Rubenstein Vice President Nancy Worby Vice President Jay Dubow Director Nikki Posillico Treasurer Casey Ichniowski Officer Dan Sutton Officer Justin Ceccarelli Officer Grant Myers Officer

BOYS TRAVEL TEAM ROUNDUP The Under 9A Magic - Despite losing a number of key players to inju-ries, the LMSC U-9 Magic posted a 13-5 record this past fall season. The Magic had an overall record of 6-3 in three high-level tournaments and a 7-1 record in Delco league play. The team lost a hard-fought game in penalty kicks to LMSC Blast in the semifinals of the Division One playoffs.

The team is comprised of strikers Justin Davis, JD Egan, Matt Mayer and Cody Wax; midfielders Griffin Fleming, Anthony Haines, and Felix Serlin; defenders Evan Goldman, Padgett Gustavson, Jerry Karalis, goalie /defender Jake McClelland and goalie / striker Gian-Luca Hail. The team is coached by Mark Weinmann (Chestnut Hill Academy varsity head coach) and Dale Haines. The LMSC Magic is looking forward to playing with a fully recovered squad in the Rocket Sports Indoor League and local and regional tournaments in the Spring. The Under 9 Blast - The Blast ended an amazing season, finishing as finalists in the Delco Division One playoffs. The Blast, expertly coached by Zed Shara, got off to a great start by winning the top division of the West-Mont Battle of the Hilltop tournament in August. The Blast played with passion and heart throughout the year and finished with a 5-3 record in the regular season. This earned them a third place finish and a spot in the playoffs. Throughout the season, the Blast played with passion and continually came from behind in a number of key games. Gabe Schmittlein and Noah Hunt-Isaak provided strong leadership and outstanding skill as the primary defensive core, while our keepers, Josh Cohen and Mathew Leff played aggressively and repeatedly came up with big saves in goal. Our stellar midfield-ers, Wyatt Page, Logan Simonian, Lucas Serlin and Josh Liss provided many big plays to set up powerful forwards, Anthony Calligaro, Jackson Kane, George Monos, and TJ Arms.

The highlight of the season was a hard-fought victory over the LMSC U-9A Magic in the semi-finals of the playoffs. The game was tied 2-2 through double-overtime. The Blast came out victorious on penalty kicks, 3-2, with Mathew Leff, the goalie, kicking the winning goal. The championship game against the undefeated Philadelphia Soccer Club Fire Rescue #1 was highly contested and quite competitive. The Blast rallied in the second half to tie the game 2-2 on outstanding goals by Wyatt Page and Anthony Calligaro, but in the end the Philadelphia Soccer Club came on to score two late goals and win 4-2. Throughout the season the Blast played together as a team with heart, passion and a competitive spirit. In doing so, they contributed to a wonderful LMSC tradition of strength at the U-9 level. The Under 10A Lightning - The Lightning are in the midst of their second season together as they continue to train un-der the direction of Adrian Cox, Episcopal Academy’s varsity soccer coach. Success in the second year has proven to be more challenging as the opponents have become more com-petitive. Throughout an exciting season, there were many indi-vidual and team highlights. The offense continues to be well-balanced with strikers Josh Katz, Kevin Bendesky and Marcelo Pernot leading the attack. Midfielders Kyle Gaeffke and Ayo Maja add an extra scoring punch and help control the ball when on attack. Finally, the defense is anchored by fullbacks Michael Carr, Matthew Branman and Jimmy Tricolli, along with superb goalkeeping by Will Rosenbaum and Michael Hinckley, as evidenced by their 0.82 goals against average. In the spring of 2006 the Lightning competed in the EPYSA Outdoor Cup. After going 3-0 in the opening rounds, they lost to the eventual champion, Philadelphia Soccer Club, 3-2 in overtime. In May, 2006 they competed in the top level of the FC Delco Players Cup. Again, the Lightning was impres-sive but came up short, this time losing in the championship game 1-0 to the Manhattan Kickers on penalty kicks.

During the summer the team played in the 2006 Spirit Kick-Off Classic in Downingtown. In spite of impressive tourna-ment results (4-2 versus CRUSA; 9-1, versus HBC Flash; 4-0 versus Marlton Lightning in the semi-final game), they lost to CRUSA in a rematch during the championship game, 1-0. This tough defensive Lightning team played hard and stayed composed throughout the close competition.

During Columbus Day weekend, the team played in their first YMS Cup Tournament (last year was rained out). They came up against some of their fiercest competition to date. Although they did not make it to the playoffs in this tourna-ment, they continued to develop their skills, maintain good sportsmanship, and work together as a team.

Finally, the Lightning fell short in their bid to defend their Delco League Championship. They finished the regular sea-son in 2nd place with a record of 7-1-2, and then lost a nail-biting semi-final game to the Ukrainian Nationals, 3-2. The Under 10 United - United started the year off with an impressive first place finish in the late August Kids Peace tournament. United went 4-0 and outscored their opponents 19-2. United then started the Delco season by winning their first five games. The boys also had tremendous fun at the Yardley Makefield Columbus Day Tournament.

For the second season in a row, United finished the regular Delco season in second place. This year the boys were 9-2 and really improved their skill and tactics from our first summer practices. During the Delco semi-finals, United came out strong with a 1-0 lead, but ulti-mately lost a very exciting battle 2-1, to a strong TEYSA Warriors team. The defense was tremendous all season. It was led by Gregory Kastein, Jamie Leyden, Julian Sherman and Nate Ul-rich. The midfield was controlled by Jack Soslow, Jesse Bregman and Cole Edelstein. Forward play was superb all season and United was led by Ian Matherson, Sina Mortazavi, Adam Poluka and Ben Salzer. Nick Geaneotes was great in goal all year. The boys were sad when the season ended and are already geared up for Indoor! The Under 10 Hedgehogs - With several new faces on the roster, the Hedgehogs began their U-10 season in mid-August by competing in the Twin Valley Summer Classic and played three very competitive games to get ready for the Delco League season.

Playing with skill, hustle and enthusiasm throughout the entire season, the Hogs put together a 6-5 campaign and just missed a playoff berth, finishing fifth in the 12 team league. The Hedgehogs proved to be a resilient bunch, coming back with several big wins after the occa-sional tough loss. All would agree the highlight of the year was the season-ending 1-0 victory over eventual league champion T/E. Displaying all their soccer savvy and competitive fire, the Hogs took a lead late in the first half and utilized a complete team effort to come away with a huge win in a fiercely contested, thrilling game.

Another highlight for the Hogs was the increased goal scoring output and distribution displayed this year. The Hogs scored 34 goals this season, doubling last season’s total of 17, with every player scoring at least once. Exciting and timely scoring punch was provided by newcomers Jack Cassidy, Declan Meaney, Joe Grimaldi and Brennan Verges along with Hog veterans Ben Finger and Michael Figelman. The midfield was controlled by the smart, tactical play of Michael Walsh, Trey Croney, Sam Wheeler and Brady MacManus while the defense was spearheaded by the solid and steady play of Sam Payne and Nathan Twedt. Displaying their versatility, each Hog played all over the field at one time or another. The Hogs will play in several indoor and outdoor tourneys this winter and spring and will be ready for the move to 11v11 next season. Great work! Go Hogs!

The Under 12A Cannibals - For the fourth time in four years, the Cannibals won the championship in Delco Soc-cer League’s top division. And, for the fourth consecutive year, the Cannibals won the championship game by shutting out their opponent. During the nine league games that the team played, the Cannibals allowed only two goals. They scored 26 goals during the Delco League season.

Defensively, starting goalkeeper Kevin Lawson allowed only one goal during the year. In front of him was a rock solid defense consisting primarily of CD McGlynn, Grant Simon, Michael Discavage, Alex Dubow and Devin McLaughlin. During the season, these defenders not only defended well, but started the offense with great runs and great passes up the field.

After winning every regular season game, the Cannibals defeated Lower Dauphin 3-1 in the semifinals. This put them into the semifinals against Crystal Palace from Bal-timore. The Cannibals again prevailed with a 2-0 win. The championship game was a rematch of last year’s game against the Montgomery Maniacs. For the second straight year, the Cannibals came away with a 1-0 win. Brett Campbell scored the only goal of the game, beating two defend-ers down the wing, then calmly chipping the ball over the onrushing goalie.

During the fall, the scoring was equally di-vided among a lot of players. In addition to Campbell, goals came from forwards Jarred Madrid, Ben Marks and Matthew Lindheim. Probably the biggest attribute of this cham-pionship team was the tremendous midfield play which enabled the Cannibals to keep possession of the ball most of the game and force the opponents to chase them around, trying to win the ball back. Sean O’Brien, Henry Bonilla and Gabe Boni, along with Gonzo 1 and Gonzo 2 (identical twins Danny and Andrew Gonzalez) helped maintain this dominance. Their ability to get back on defense, then quickly transition up into the attack was a great asset for the Cannibals.

In tournament play, the Cannibals were semifinalists in the Spirit United Kickoff classic, losing the semis n PK’s. The team reached the championship game of the Yardley Columbus Day Tournament, losing in PK’s to Bethesda, Mary-land. They reached the finals of the Howell, New Jersey Thanksgiving Tournament, losing to Dix Hills, New York (two time state champions). By the end of the season, the Cannibals were ranked #1 in the state and # 7 in the nation.

This spring, the Cannibals will return to Richmond Virginia where they will try to defend their Jefferson Cup champion-ship from last year. The Jefferson Cup is considered to be the toughest tournament in the Eastern United States. The Cannibals will also travel this spring to Dallas to play in the Dallas Cup, featuring many of the top teams from not only the USA, but all over the world. This will be the fourth straight year an LMSC team will compete in the Dallas Cup as the Pink Panthers, Roadkill and Hammerheads have all played there in recent years, competing against teams from England, Mexico, Costa Rica, California and Florida.

The Under 12 Blue Devils - Prior to the start of the regular season, the U-12 Blue Devils competed in the Spirit Kick-Off Classic tournament. The Blue Devils had a very tough draw against three teams that would go on to accumu-late a combined record of 23-3-5 while competing in a higher division than the Blue Devils during the fall season. Nev-ertheless, it took a late second half goal to make the difference in a 3-2 loss to CV United, the eventual tournament champion. The Blue Devils competed in the YMS Columbus Cup tournament, and earned a finalist trophy, losing to Albertson Academy from Long Island, NY in the finals.

The Blue Devils competed in U-12 Delco USCS Division 1 during the Fall outdoor season. Prior to the first game, the team set two primary goals to be achieved: first place in the final regular season standings and the division champion-ship trophy. Heading into the last game of the season the Blue Devils had a record of 8-1-2, but stood in second place in the standings, needing a win in the final game to achieve its goal of finishing in first place in the final standings. An early 1-0 lead for the Blue Devils did not stand up as the Lionville team scored a goal to tie the game with less than five minutes to go.

LMSC CANNIBALS - Delco League Champions 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006

With time running out on our chance to capture first place and the Blue Devils pressing the attack in the final minutes of the game, Jake Aronchick scored a brilliant goal off a cross from Dylan Henderson with less than 10 seconds left in the game. This win gave the team a final regular season record of 9-1-2 which earned them first place in the final standings.

Unfortunately, after splitting games with the West-Mont team during the regular season, the Blue Devils had to settle for the Finalist trophy for the second year in a row, falling to West Mont in the championship game by a 1-0 score.

Our points leader, for the second year in a row, was Dylan Henderson with 4 goals and 15 assists, followed by Jason Shein with 7 goals and 7 assists, Jake Aronchick (9 goals and 3 assists) and Jeffrey Green (5 and 6). Our 8 shutouts during the tournament and regular season is a tribute to a stellar de-fensive group, which included our keepers Jeffrey Green, Ja-son Banner and Thomas Fakarzadeh, and especially the ag-gressive and tireless play from Trup Ortlieb (sweeper), Josh Klein (left sided defender), Sean Kenny (right side defender) and Jason Shein (stopper). The team was very pleased to have Jason Shein join us this year, as he provided steady leadership to the team and was very effective in organizing our offensive attacks from his stopper position.

Control of the midfield was critical to our success this year, and was primarily engineered by Teddy Foley, Alex Buck-mann, and Alex Dupre. The team also would not have achieved its outstanding record this fall without the many contri-butions from Sam Stein in the midfield, Aron Morgan at midfield/forward and Connor Keating at forward.

The team’s captains were: Jake Aronchick, Ted Foley and Dylan Henderson. They provided outstanding leadership to their teammates during games and practices. Special recognition also goes out to Grant Myers, our team trainer who does an outstanding job in advancing the skills and decision making of the players, and much of our success is a tribute to his commitment to this team. Finally I would like to thank my good friend and assistant coach, Bill Kenny, who has made valuable contributions to the leadership of our team.

During the winter, the Blue Devils will participate in the indoor leagues at Rocket Sports, competing a year up in the Under 13 age group as well as several indoor tournaments.

The Under 15 Misfits - The U15 Division 1 Misfits finished their 7th year in Delco with the same result as their first season in the league: another Delco Championship. The Misfits defeated their arch-rival neighbors, Radnor 2-1 in over-time. The winning goal was a screaming rocket from ten yards outside the 18 yard box by Max Fagan on a per-fect assist from Alex Cope. The Misfits scored first in the game on a penalty kick by John McCann. The Misfits were a perfect 4-0 on penalty kicks this year with four different players scoring each time, Bert Van Den Hooff, Julian Crow-ther, Max Fagan and John McCann.

The Misfits began the year with 14 players and despite side-lining injuries to three players, they played the season with just 11 players for three of their games and the rest of the year with just 12 including the championship game. During the past seven years the Misfits have won Delco twice, Marl-boro twice, Yardley Makefield twice, Rocket Sports indoor playing up a year twice and have numerous finalists finishes.

The Misfits team players are quick and always dangerous to opposing teams, the high goal scoring offense belongs to John McCann, Alex Cope, Kevin Cella and Max Pavel. The ball controlling and great field switching midfielders consist of Max Fagan, Jeff Blechschmidt and Bert Van Den Hooff. The confident and rock solid defense includes Michael Lowen-stein, Tal Ben-Maimon, Sam Gross, Julian Crowther and Ian Smith. The sure handed goalies of Jack Van Adelsberg and Daniel Cooper recorded shut out victories in most games.

Congratulations to the Misfits in what may be their final year in Delco League action!

GIRLS TRAVEL TEAM ROUNDUP

The Under 9A Cobras - From day one the Cobras' work ethic and fun attitude toward training has made their first steps as travel team players both enjoyable and successful. With all players working hard to build a firm foundation for technical skills, each player was also able to focus tactically on game day and enjoy playing a variety of positions. Af-ter winning their first travel tournament in Harleysville, the Cobras went on to complete an unbeaten PAGS season with the emphasis being on teamwork, sportsmanship and, of course, Cobra pride! The girls learned that while win-ning is nice and every games brings the hope of a win, it is not the only reason we play. Bonds of friendship, loyalty and trust have been made that will only help in the team's continued development.

So a successful start for the Cobra team was to be just that, a team! Well done to the whole Cobras team! The team is made up of Emma Arronson, Maddie Brill-Edwards, Claire Coyle, Alexa Foust, Alex Ladda, Allie Margulies, Callie McAvoy, Hallie Morris, Meredith Morris, Laura Pansini, Sara Platt and is coached by Steve Fraser and Jason Coyle.

The Under 9 Fury - The Fury had a strong start to their first season playing as a travel team. They won the Horsham and Hamilton (NJ) tournaments and were runner-up at the Phila-delphia invitational. The Fury played up in Division 1 during the season and had a solid showing. The team is currently playing at Rocket Sports and looks forward to competing in both EPYSA Indoor and Outdoor State tournaments in 2007.

The picture to the right was taken after the Fury’s champion-ship victory at Horsham. Team members include (back row) Rucha Alur, Margo Schoenberg, Maggie Valentine, Hayden Ivey, Olivia Tevis, (front row) Caroline Fakharzadeh, Dallas Sternberg, Abigail Andrews, Anna Leone and Jesse Rubin. Not pictured are Kyleen Considine, Ellie Greenberg, Madeline Henry and Hannah Keating. The Fury is coached by Pete Gangl, this year’s winner of the LMSC Travel Team Coach Of The Year Award (see page 18). The Under 10 Fightin’ Freedom - In their second year together, the Fightin’ Freedom girls had a great sea-son during which they experienced much development and learned about the importance of teamwork. PAGS did not keep standings this year for the U10’s and did not post scores so it made it much easier for the girls to understand the importance of being competitive and having fun while not being so focused on results and winning at a young age.

The Fightin’ Freedom participated in the Spirit United Kick-off Classic in Downingtown in late August to get their sea-son rolling. They also traveled to Cape May for the George Pratt Memorial Soccer Tournament on Columbus Day Weekend where they saw some new competition and played neighboring team, TEYSA. The PAGS season featured many highly contested and exciting games where the players rotated through all of the positions on the field learning the nuances of the game. While certain players emerged as being stronger at goal-keeper or center mid, for example, many of the players improved their skills, which was really exciting to watch.

The Fightin’ Freedom are: Lisa Bernstein, Alexa Comai, Madison Dawkins, Sophie “Gord” Gordon, Maria Kilcullen, Meredith Maguire, Julia Marks, Sophia Maute, Cara Moschetti, Bridget Pansini, Margaux “O” Paolino, and Mel Vizak.

The Under 11 Charge - The Lower Merion Charge culminated an undefeated fall season by winning the PAGS championship game 2-1 against Garnet Valley. The Charge finished the PAGS season with a 10-0-1 record, they were also champions in the Spirit United Tournament, and were undefeated in the Cape May Express Tournament. Their overall record for the fall was 14 wins, 0 losses, and 4 ties. Congratulations to all the girls on the team for their hard work, which resulted in so much success this season..

The Under 12A Heart - The Lower Merion Heart girls soccer team took on a challenging fall campaign, competing against the top U-12 girls teams from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Ohio, and Texas along the way. The team began the season in strong fashion going undefeated in the top brackets of the Harleysville tournament and then the premier Hershey tournament. The Hershey tournament concluded with impressive wins against two of the top teams in the mid-Atlantic region; 3-0 against Deep Run PA in the semi-finals and 2-1 against Mt. Laurel NJ in the final.

The regular season put the Heart in tightly contested games week in and week out, with the team finishing with a hard-earned 5-2-2 record and ready for the playoffs against highly ranked teams from T/E and Baltimore. The team’s trademark ball-oriented style of defense kept the slate clean in the semi-final against T/E, with a late second half goal by Nanci Selig off an assist from Salina Williford turning out to be the difference in a 1-0 win.

The final provided a rematch against regional power-house, the Baltimore Bays, which had taken the regular season game against the Heart. The Heart took a first half lead when striker Salina Williford re-ceived the ball on a long cross-field run and then served the ball back to Paige Phillips who joined the attack by taking the vacated space in the center of the field. A clinical finish made it 1-0 in favor of the Heart. Strong defense from the front line to the back line kept the score at 1-0 well into the second half. With each team pressing for the next goal, Moira Petrie found the net for the Heart finishing her strike on the net in a crowded box just before the Baltimore keeper could collect the ball and sealing the PAGS championship for Lower Merion.

The back line with outside defenders Kiersten Daly, Rachel Flynn, and Sophie Katz, central defender Gabby Kursman, and keeper Sydney Frank kept shutouts intact for 120 minutes of top level playoff soccer. End-to-end effort from inside midfielders Anne Coyle, Paige Phillips, Nanci Selig, Martha Zeller and Mary Grace Zeller and outside midfielders Caleigh Foust, Samara Kitnick and Moira Petrie gave the Heart decided advantages in possession in both games. Carly Ichniowski combined with several midfielders to man one of the striker positions and combined with the team’s top goal scorer Salina Williford to keep pressure on the opponent’s net for much of the two games. The successful show-ings in tournament play coupled with the PAGS premier championship left the Heart the #1 ranked U-12 girls team in Pennsylvania (and # 20 in the nation) by season’s end. Congratulations on a most successful season. The Under 12 Lasers - The Lasers season was all about determination. Despite the loss of six players from last year and the addition of five new faces, the team quickly came together as a unit. With only 13 players on the roster we played more than half our games with no substitutes, often against teams with as many as five substitutes. Consis-tently overcoming adversity, the Lasers compiled a 6-3-2 league record and a win in our Columbus day tournament.

Seeded third in the divisional playoffs, we had to make the long trip back to Cecil County Maryland for our semi-final game. Tied at the end of double overtime 0-0, the game was decided by penalty kicks 2-0. The championship game was a 1-0 total team win against an excellent Westmont team. Caroline Anapol took control of the midfield on both of-fense and defense. Anna Blumenfeld showed speed and an eye for the goal on wing.

Anna Devon-Sand displayed quickness and tenacity in midfield and on defense. Callan Goldman ran tirelessly to control the midfield. Julia Kramer-Golinkoff showed smart and imaginative play in midfield. Mimi McCann had cat-like quickness in goal and solid field play. Efi Narliotis was strong and athletic, saving the day numerous times in midfield and on defense.

Carolyn Normile’s dribbling and passing skills solidified the mid-field. Micheala Podrasky’s speed and tenacity repeatedly shut down the potent Westmont offense. Allie Schuster’s quickness and power made her dangerous around the goal. Phoebe Smuckler was always cool under pressure, with powerful and accurate passes and set plays. Julia Spandorfer was a speedy wizard with the ball on the wing. Sarah Weiser was a double threat both at stopping and scoring goals.

The Laser coaches, Jim Schuster and Tom Anapol, would like to thank the players and parents for an excellent season. We would especially like to acknowledge our team manager, Susan Blumenfeld, for handling essentially all of the administrative responsibilities and making for a very smooth season. The Under 14 Furies - The LMSC Furies learned a great deal about adversity in Fall 2006 but hung together and continued to play aggressive soccer in spite of a washed-out Labor Day tournament, a long injured reserve list, and a variety of other calamities that forced the Furies to play without subs and sometimes even down one in over half their league games. Veteran goalies Erin Marshall and (until she was injured) Cecilia Rosenbaum kept Furies' hopes alive in most games.

Last year's defensive starters, Caroline Kocent, Marisa Sobel, Erin Segal, and Rachel Marx continued their effec-tive work with Katherine Kanehann taking Caroline's place once she was injured and learning that position very quickly. Middies Alexis Benton, Liz Touchstone (when she wasn't filling in in goal), Zoe Kuenstler, and Lauren Ritterband covered the entire field, sometimes for all 70 minutes of a game. Forwards Alex Read, Emily Rap-poport, Charlotte Griffiths, Leah Puklin, and Emily Brody-Bizar kept the pressure on opposition defenses.

It's easy to for members of a team to show a lot of class and support each other when things are going well. It takes character to show those traits when things are sour. The Furies coaches salute their very classy players.

2007 - 2008 TRAVEL TEAM TRYOUT INFORMATION

One of the primary goals of our Intramural Program is to develop the top players for our highly prestigious Travel Team Program. This program is where the vast majority of our more talented players wind up playing. The Travel Team Program is essential for those players who wish to compete at higher levels of play in the future (high school, college and beyond).

Tryouts for the fall season travel teams will be held in late April and May. We will mail tryout information to all people on our mailing list in our Spring Newsletter, which will arrive in early March. Information about tryout dates, times and locations will also be posted on our web page in late February.

The primary season for most travel teams is in the fall. Most travel teams play a limited amount of indoor soccer during the winter months. Many of our travel teams play in several spring and early fall tournaments.

LMSC will field up to four teams in each age group from Under 9 through Under 15, depending on the number of players that tryout as well as the number of qualified head coaches that are willing to coach in the age group. LMSC will again offer the Under 8 Developmental Travel Team Academy. Tryouts for the U-8 teams will be held in late May or early June. The team will train together in the fall and winter months. Eligible players for the fall 2007 team MUST be born between August 1, 1999 and July 31, 2000, no exceptions. A complete description of the Under 8 program, including the commitments and expectations, can be found on the LMSC web page ( www.lmsc.net ) in the Travel Team section.

BOYS TRAVEL TEAMS DIVISION TEAM COACH RECORD PLAYOFFS

U-09A 1 Magic M. Weinmann 7-2-0 semifinals U-09B 1 Blast Z. Shara 6-4-0 finalists U-09C 3 Gunners W. Einhorn 5-3-1 U-09D 5 Dynamo M. McConnell 9-1-1 finalists U-10A 1 Lightning A. Cox 7-2-2 semifinals U-10B 1 Rage G. Myers 2-8-0 U-10C 3 United D. Matherson 9-3-0 semifinals U-10D 4 Hedgehogs J. MacManus 6-5-0 U-11A 1 Nimrods W. Nord 6-3-1 quarterfinals U-11B 1 Mini-Madrid T. Pillion 6-3-1 quarterfinals U-11C 3 Fireballs M. McConnell 11-2-0 finalists U-11D 4 Destroyers M. Ackerman 11-1-1 finalists U-12A E1 Cannibals B. Sturla 10-0-0 champions U-12B U1 Blue Devils B. Henderson 9-2-2 finalists U-12C U3 Serpents M. Salzer 6-3-1 semifinals U-13A U1 Red Devils G. Smolen 6-2-0 semifinals U-13B U2 Squirrels D. Moyer 2-5-1 U-13C U3 Wizards G. Wieczorek 1-6-2 U-14A U1 Mustangs P. Gangl 5-2-3 U-15A Velez M. Nuila Winter U-15B U1 Misfits S. Fagan 6-1-1 champions

GIRLS TRAVEL TEAMS DIVISION TEAM COACH RECORD PLAYOFFS

U-09A 1 Cobras S. Fraser 6-0-2 U-09B 1 Fury P. Gangl 4-5-0 U-09C 3 Hooligans V. Jacoby 3-3-2 U-09D 4 Rockets M. Schweitzer 3-5-0 U-10A 1 FightnFreedom D. Fagan 2-4-3 U-10B 2 Shooting Stars M. Brogan 1-7-1 U-10C 3 Flame P. Szapary 0-9-0 U-11A 1 Charge N. Severini 10-0-1 champions U-11B 2 Attack B. Ehrich 1-7-1 U-12A Premier Heart C. Ichniowski 7-2-2 champions U-12B 1 Strikers J. Partridge 2-5-2 U-12C 4 Lasers J. Schuster 8-3-0 champions U-12D 4 Daredevils C. Tepper 1-7-1 U-13A Chmp. Tempest J. Battista 3-5-1 U-13B 3 Screamers F. Robinson 4-5-0 U-14A 2 Hornets R. Gregg 3-5-1 U-14B 3 Heat M. Orkline 2-6-1 U-14C 4 Furies A. Blistein 0-8-1 U-15A Chmp. Shock N. Posillico 4-4-1 U-15B Chmp. Fire W. Haines 2-6-0 U-16A Premier Stingrays G. Wieczorek 4-4-1 U-17A Riptide G. Betancourt

2006 FALL TRAVEL TEAM ROUNDUP

UNDER 8 DEVELOPMENTAL TRAVEL TEAM ACADEMY Congratulations to the players below who were selected to this year’s Under 8 Developmental Travel Team Academy. This program is designed to train our younger, more talented players and develop them for the Travel Team Program in future seasons. There were 59 boys who tried out and 45 girls who tried out for this year’s teams. Players in the U-8 Developmental Travel Team Academy train twice a week under the supervision of the LMSC coaching staff. The teams also played in the Upper Moreland Under 8 tournament in early November. During the winter, the teams also play in the indoor travel team leagues at Rocket Sports. Next year’s Under 8 Developmental Travel Team Academy will be open to players born between August 1, 1999 and July 31, 2000. Players not in this birth range MAY NOT tryout. We anticipate having tryouts in early June. Please check our web page www.lmsc.net in the spring for more information on next year’s tryouts.

Auerbach Max Bracken Andrew Bradbury Gregory Bunn David Cohen Ben Comai John Cost Alex Cypress William DePetris Austin Eringis Alex Ernst Griffin Glisk Ben Goldenberg Isaac Granoff Daltrey Haas Evan Harel Aviv

Holtzman Ori Kane Nicolas Lipstein Zachary Lorenz Brian Love Samson Maja Aki Morrison Christopher Saleh Luca Scarlato Henry Smith David Swatski Daniel Turner Jack Valenci Max Wylie Austin Zaoutis Jake Zaoutis Sam

Beatty Claire Bluestein Caroline Cahana Tamar DePillis Caroline Gayhardt Mary Ginsberg Zoe Grayum Rebecca Grossman Sarah Harad Carly Heller Jordan Keck Kayla

Klevan Emily Lapat Claire Lavelle Aileen MacFarlane Lorna Miller Olivia Moschetti Olivia Root Sarah Smukler Camille Szapary Claire Utkus Julia

BOYS UNDER 8 DEVELOPMENTAL TEAM GIRLS UNDER 8 DEVELOPMENTAL TEAM

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS COACHING IN LMSC The following article was written by LMSC President Biff Sturla. This is his 25th year coaching in LMSC. Before that, he played in the club for

many years. This article is about how he has seen the soccer community change during that time. Having been a counselor at Camp Tecumseh in New Hampshire for many summers, I developed a great love for working with young athletes. In 1982, after playing four years of college and then being away from the area for two more years in graduate school, I decided to contact the people in the Gladwyne Soccer Club where I played my club ball as a teenager (Gladwyne would later become a part of LMSC). They offered me the head coaching job for their U-10 boys travel team. Only 15 players showed up for tryouts so I took all 15 players. The team included one very talented girl (there was no girls soccer program at the time) and seven underage boys. Despite being such a young team, we finished 4-6 during the fall. During the winter, we were invited to play in two indoor tourna-ments, both played in gymnasiums run by other local area U-10 teams. Back then, there were no indoor soccer facilities anywhere in Southeastern Pennsylvania. Our club, like almost all others, was very small. The Delco Soccer League and EPYSA State Cups only offered travel team competition in age groups U-10, U-12, U-14, U-16 and U-19. Most of our teams consisted of players from multiple birth years. We rarely had enough players to form ‘B’ teams back in the mid 1980’s. Back then, our intramural program only had about 100 players in it. There were only two age groups, both coed, with multiple ages for players. Today, our Fall Intramural Program has about 1800 players participate each year. Games at all ages were full sided 11 vs. 11. At the end of my first season, the club President joked about how he was sure that one not-so-athletic boy in our intramural program never touched the ball in a game all season. I did not see the humor in that and thought that there had to be a better way to run soccer games for little kids. In my third year of coaching, I got involved in the Delco League Select Program. The Select Program created teams consisting of the best players from the entire Delco League. These teams would compete against the best teams from Virginia, New York, Connecticut, etc. Back in the 1980s, teams in the Delco Select Program struggled to be competitive with the top club teams in powerhouse areas like Northern Virginia and Long Island, New York. The best club teams in our area would not be able to stay on the field with the strong teams that those areas pro-duced. During the late 1980s and the early 1990s, our soccer community would change dramatically. Gladwyne Soccer Club merged with Penn Valley Soccer Club in 1986 to become the Gladwyne-Penn Valley Soccer Club (GPVSC). This gave our club a stronger base of players and enabled us to form ‘B’ teams in most age groups. The program was run by Ed Hochreiter who had been President of Gladwyne Soccer, along with Dietmar Kohler and Mike Man-darino from Penn Valley, plus myself. In 1989, GPVSC merged with Wynnewood Soccer Club to become Lower Merion Soccer Club. The next year, LMSC absorbed the Narberth Soccer Program. Chick Ceccarelli, who was President of Wynnewood, became President of LMSC, a position he would hold for 10 years. Chick’s son Justin is now an officer in LMSC. Joe Hopkins, who had recently moved into the area, ran the Travel Team Program while I ran the intramural program. Joe handled most of our legal and business matters back then and was largely re-sponsible for the continued growth of our club in the 1990s. By the late 1980’s we had a small girls travel team program but it was not until 1991 when the USA Women’s team won the first ever Women’s World Cup in China that girls soccer in our country would take off. Right after the 1991 World Cup, our female membership grew dramatically. Before the World Cup, our club was about 15% female. Soon after, that number rose quickly. Today our club is about 45% female. In 1989, the LMSC Dragons, coached by Hopkins, won our club’s first state championship. Our travel teams were starting to compete with the top teams in the state and we were producing some top notch players. In 1990, my LMSC Gorillas became the first team in club history to win the indoor state cup and the outdoor state cup in the same year. Two members of that team, Adrian Cox and Will Nord are now head coaches in our travel team pro-gram. Cox coaches our U-10A boys, the LMSC Lightning, as well as the Episcopal Academy boys varsity. Nord is head coach for our U-11A boys, the LMSC Nimrods and assistant coach for the Bayard Rustin high school boys varsity in West Chester. Having them coaching in our club team, as well as coaching local area high school teams makes me feel very old.

Also in 1990, one of the Delco Select teams merged into a club team, known as the FC Delco Demons. This U-15 team included long time LMSC players Richard Wilmot, Will Kohler and T.J. Carella. That year, the Demons not only won the state championship, but they also won the Region One championship and the National Championship. All three players would later start for Harvard University’s Men’s team. Our club was starting to produce some top level players and Eastern Pennsylvania was becoming a major source of our country’s top level players. In 1993, Kohler would start for the USA Under 17 National Team and compete in the U-17 World Cup. One player who played one year for the LMSC Gorillas, Ben Olsen, late represented our country in the 2000 Olympics and the 2006 World Cup in Germany. Another player on the Gorillas was Jon Conway, current goalkeeper for New York Red Bull in the MLS. This summer will be Jon’s ninth year in the MLS. He was the Gorillas’ goalie for five years.

In an effort to better develop our younger players and ensure that the players would enjoy the sport a lot more, our club made many changes to the intramural program. One significant change was to make separate girls divisions. By doing this, girls participation in our club rose significantly. Another major change was the switch to playing small sided games, as recommended by the United States Soccer Federation. Instead of playing 11v11, where players would rarely touch the ball, we switched to 7 vs. 7 soccer. Players became much more involved in the play. This meant that they would enjoy the sport more and help them develop better as players. Over the years, we reduced the size of the teams even more. Today we play 4 vs. 4 for our youngest players and have many more teams. Now all players are involved with the play, make many more touches on the ball each game, develop faster as players and as a result, have a lot more fun.

In the 1990s, our club grew significantly. In 1990, we had less than 600 players in the intramural program. In 2001, we had over 1800 players in the intramural program. One of our goals in LMSC has always been diversity. We try to offer programs for as many young players as possible. In 1993, under the direction of Susan Reynolds, a Special Needs Program was created to offer soccer to children with physical and mental limitations. Since then we have had about 30 players participate each year. After Susan retired from the program, Steve Spencer took it over. Un-der Steve’s direction, the program has continued to be a tremendous success every fall.

As our membership grew, we added more and more travel teams. We now offer up to four travel teams in each age group, more than any other club in Southeastern Pennsylvania. While many clubs only offer an ’A’ and ’B’ team in each age group, we work hard to enable more players to play travel team soccer. Our top team in most age groups competes in the top division of Delco League (for boys) and PAGS League (for girls). In some age groups, we even are able to have our ‘B’ team compete in the top division of these leagues. LMSC is about the only club to be able to do this. Our other travel teams are placed by the leagues into a division which will offer a competitive level of play. Many times our ‘C’ and ‘D’ teams will compete against other clubs ‘A’ and ‘B’ teams. This has helped us achieve our goal of maximizing participation throughout the age groups.

Another significant addition to the soccer community came in the form of indoor soccer. More and more clubs began offering indoor soccer tournaments in local area gyms. In 1985, Woodhaven Sports Centre, located in Northeast Philadelphia, became the first local area indoor soccer facility. Many of our teams would travel up there regularly to play in indoor soccer tournaments. From 1996 through 1999, LMSC ran an indoor program at The Haverford School, known as Sports Rink. Our facility included a full set of dasher boards to keep the ball in play as well as goals built into the boards. Today there are over a half dozen indoor facilities operating in Southeastern Pennsyl-vania, all of which stay very busy during the winter months. Almost all of them have artificial turf surfaces that play like regular grass and allow for play that helps develop players’ skills and tactical awareness.

Another significant change that took place starting in the 1990s was a change from all volunteer parent coaches to some travel teams hiring non-parent paid coaches to run teams. This had already been a regular practice in many other parts of the country for many years. But, until the late 1990s, local area teams were all run by parent volun-teers, many with a limited knowledge of the game and a limited commitment to the game. By hiring coaches with strong soccer backgrounds, teams were getting better training and developing faster. Today, almost all division one teams in Delco and PAGS have non-parent paid coaches. Several of our other travel teams have paid trainers as well. Having non-parents coach teams has also lessened the accusations by other parents of coaches being biased in favor of their child with respect to playing time, position played, etc.

As Southeastern PA became stronger and stronger in soccer, travel to games and tournaments increased. Today, the Delco and PAGS Leagues include teams from Delaware, Baltimore, Lancaster, Harrisburg and Wilkes-Barre. Some travel teams now travel to places very far away. In 2000, Dan Grauman took the U-16 LMSC Delinquents over to Holland to train and compete in two international tournaments. In 2002, Danielle Fagan took a team of 16 LMSC girls from assorted LMSC travel teams to compete in the Gothia Cup in Sweden. In 2006, Miguel Nuila took his LMSC Velez team to England. They will be traveling to Bermuda this summer to compete. In recent years. Sev-eral LMSC boys teams have competed in the Dallas Cup, a week long international tournament held every spring which involves youth teams from all over the world.

In 2002, the LMSC Hammerheads team played a team at Dallas from Costa Rica. Two years later, they returned to that tournament and played a team from England. In 2005, the LMSC Roadkill played at Dallas. Last year the LMSC Pink Panthers played there. In April, 2007, our U-12 LMSC Cannibals will become the fourth LMSC to play in the Dallas Cup.

One of the biggest issues facing us is playing fields. With our club now having 2800 children playing each year, we need a lot of fields. Unfortunately, there is no more room to build additional fields. The Lower Merion Township and the Lower Merion School District have been extremely helpful in letting us use many of their fields each year. We have more players than can fit into the fields we have. Some travel teams have been able to rent private school fields while others rent fields outside of the township. Field availability will continue to be a big issue for us and there are no easy solutions in sight, especially now that the School District has started their five year project to overhaul both public high schools in the township. This will cause a large reduction in the number of fields available to the us over the next five years.

Our heavy use of playing fields affects the quality of the fields. Between club soccer, school sports and other youth sports, all of the fields in the township are over-used. It is possible that the future of local youth sports will see more arti-ficial surfaces installed in the township. That is an issue that is being looked at right now.

Another addition to the soccer world was the growth of adult women’s soccer. LMSC organized a program for adult women in 1995. The effort was led by Karin Sturla and current LMSC Vice President Nancy Worby. In 1998, the Tri-Country Women’s Soccer League was created. Karin Sturla was the first president and held that position for over seven years. Today, over a dozen soccer clubs offer women’s soccer programs.

In the early 2000’s, LMSC continued to grow stronger. In 2003, the LMSC Hammerheads were not only indoor state champions and outdoor state champions, but won the USA Region One championship. Region One consists of all states from Maine through West Virginia. In 2006, the Hammerheads, now playing out of the FC Delco club, were na-tional finalists, losing to So Cal United from California in the national championship game in Des Moines, Iowa.

As our club goes forward, we see many issues that will need to be dealt with. The issue of playing fields will always be a prominent one. Lower Merion Township and the Lower Merion School District have been very helpful in terms of allow-ing us to use their fields. Our club continues to explore additional field options.

Another pressing problem that we face, like many other youth sports programs in the country, is the problem of over-bearing parents with unrealistic expectations. We have worked hard to educate coaches on issues of sportsmanship and ethics. For the most part, we have been successful. We have had very few coaches display poor judgment in games in recent years and for the most part, our coaches have been very good role models for our youth. But, while 98% of the players have well behaved, caring parents cheering them on, the other two percent of parents seem to insist on yelling at referees, yelling at players and being nasty to their child's coaches. We know that we are not alone in hav-ing these issues and we will continue to deal with these issues as they come up. Most parents are supportive and do their best to let their children enjoy their activities. There will continue to be a select few parents who will harass referees, coaches and opposing players. Unfortunately, we know that this problem will never fully go away.

I am very proud of the excellent set of non-parent coaches that have come into our travel team program. Michael Mark, Tom Gallagher and Justin Ceccarelli have done a fantastic job heading up our 4 and 5 year old intramural divisions. Mi-chael and Justin are both former players in our club. Under the direction of Danielle Fagan, we have assembled a great group of coaches for our Under 8 Developmental Travel Team Program. Thanks to the efforts of people like Nikki Posil-lico and Grant Myers, we have put together a great group of people to run our summer program and train our travel team players. Still, the majority of our coaches, especially at the intramural level and lower travel team divisions, are volunteer parent coaches. We continue to work with them, helping them better understand the game. We try to offer them ample amounts of coaching literature and support so that the time they put into the program will be as productive as possible.

Finally, I want to acknowledge the many great people we have serving as Officers in the club who have helped make this such a solid, stable organization. Marty Rubenstein has been an Officer and Director for 10 years now while Jay Dubow has been an Officer and Director for five years. Both add a lot of business and legal expertise, as well as soccer knowl-edge and a great passion for the game. Nancy Worby has been an Officer for 15 years. As Vice President and travel team registrar, she continues to be a huge asset to the program. Nikki Posillico, Dan Sutton, Justin Ceccarelli, Casey Ichniowski have all made valuable contributions as LMSC Officers. We look forward to having Grant Myers join our group of club offices. I would also like to thank many club officers from the past, especially Chick Ceccarelli, Joe Hopkins and Ed Hochreiter, all of whom built this club up in the 1980s and 1990s. Also, special recognition to Dietmar Kohler, Jim Brecht, Steve Strawbridge, Mike Mandarino, Bryan Richardson and Noah Gorson, I have greatly enjoyed working with all of these people and I look forward to many more years in LMSC working with many other people who share a passion for working with the youth of our community.

2007 LMSC SPRING INTRAMURAL PROGRAM

Once again, LMSC will be running their Spring Intramural Program for younger boys and girls. The program is tentatively set to run every Sunday afternoon from April 15 through June 17 (except Memorial Day Weekend). Divisions will be formed as follows:

Boys 2002 Atoms Girls 2002 Neutrons Boys 2001 Bantams Girls 2001 Microns Boys 2000 Juniors Girls 2000 Quasars Boys 1999 Intermediates Girls 1999 Protons Boys 1997 & 1998 Seniors Girls 1997 & 1998 Electrons The Atoms, Bantams, Neutrons and Microns Divisions players will NOT be assigned to set teams. Each divi-sion will meet at the same time each week and be led through basic skills development activities by the LMSC coaching staff, led by Michael Mark and Tom Gallagher. The skill work will last approximately 20 minutes, each player will work with his or her own size 3 soccer ball. Following the skills work, the players will be randomly di-vided into teams of 4 - 6 players and play in small sided games. The small sided games format is designed to maximize player development since players will always be involved in the action. Juniors, Intermediates, Quasars and Protons Divisions players will be placed on set teams and play a differ-ent opponent each week. Each team will have a 20 minute practice with their coach each Sunday. Following the practice, each team will be divided into two and play two simultaneous small sided 4 vs. 4 games against the op-posing team. This small sided games format is designed to maximize player development. Seniors and Electrons Divisions players will be placed on set teams and play a different opponent each week. Each team will have a 20 minute practice with their coach each Sunday. All games will be played using a 7 vs. 7 format. Players currently in the Developmental Travel Team Program, as well as those on the U-9 and U-10 travel teams, may also play in these divisions (but NOT in the Fall Intramural Program). Standings will not be kept in any age group, there will be no end of season championships in any division.

Registration material for the Spring Intramural Program is available on the LMSC web site: www.lmsc.net

Registration material will also be available in our Spring Newsletter which we will mail out in early March to every-one on our mailing list.

Unlike the fall program, there are no midweek practices in the older divisions of the Spring Intramural Program.

Due to the limited amount of field permits that we are issued by the township in the spring, LMSC will again have to put a cap on the number of players

that will be accepted into the Spring Intramural Program.

Registrations will be accepted on a first come first serve basis in the each division. Once we have received the maximum number of registrations in each division, we will not be able to accept any additional registrations. We Need Referees: To qualify as a referee in the Spring Intramural Program, a person must be at least 11 years of age with a minimum of two years of soccer playing experience. Our older age groups require older referees. Application material for referee positions is available on our web site. The material will also be available in the LMSC Spring Newsletter. No prior referee experience is necessary.

DELCO LEAGUE (BOYS)

2006 U-12 Premier Cannibals B. Sturla 2006 U-15 1 Misfits S. Fagan 2005 U-9 1 Lightning A. Cox 2005 U-10 3 Fireballs S. Kurtz 2005 U-11 1 Cannibals B. Sturla 2005 U-13 3 Mustangs Z. Shara 2004 U-9 1 Nimrods W. Nord 2004 U-9 3 Fireballs S. Kurtz 2004 U-10 1 Cannibals B. Sturla 2003 U-9 1 Cannibals B. Sturla 2003 U-10 4 Condors D. Moyer 2003 U-11 1 Roadkill A. Kelly 2003 U-12 Premier Velez M. Nuila 2002 U-9 3 Pumas T. Pillion 2001 U-9 2 Rebels G. Moore 2001 U-10 1 Velez M. Nuila 2001 U-10 4 Dynamos K. Smith 2001 U-11 4 Chargers B. Richardson 2001 U-12 Premier Hammerheads B. Sturla 2000 U-9 2 Misfits S. Fagan 2000 U-10 1 Hammerheads B. Sturla 2000 U-10 4 Lightning A. Corrado 2000 U-11 5 Demolishers R. Savett 2000 U-12 2 Rebels G. Moore 2000 U-13 5 Dynasty G. Gibson 1999 U-9 1 Hammerheads B. Sturla 1999 U-10 5 Demons A. Macia

1999 U-11 2 Rebels G. Moore 1999 U-12 4 Gunners W. Einhorn 1999 U-12 5 Aliens A. Escott 1998 U-12 4 Marvels R. Kaufman 1997 U-13 3 Gators M. Avart 1997 U-14 2 Maniacs K. Lord 1997 U-14 3 Banshees J. Rose 1997 U-15 2 Blackhawks C. Scott

PAGS LEAGUE (GIRLS)

2006 U-12 Premier Heart C. Ichniowski 2006 U-11 1 Charge N. Severini 2006 U-12 4 Lasers J. Schuster 2004 U-10 1 Heart C. Ichniowski 2004 U-10 2 Strikers J. Coyle 2004 U-10 4 Lasers T. Agoos 2003 U-9 1 Heart C. Ichniowski 2003 U-12 Premier Chili Peppers D. Fagan 2002 U-9 1 Lightning R. Schwab 2001 U-9 5 Rockets S. Frank 2000 U-9 5 Heartbreakers W. Haines 2000 U-15 2 Devils R. Miller 1999 U-12 3 Red Storm D. Sutton 1999 U-14 2 Devils R. Miller 1999 U-14 4 Chili Peppers M. Malloy 1999 U-15 2 Red Hawks C. Dennis 1997 U-14 2 Hawks R. Lane 1997 U-15 1 Mandrills L. Laver

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS HONOR ROLL

Below is a list of LMSC teams who have been crowned league champions since 1997. The list has the year, age group, division, team name and head coach for each championship team.

LMSC RECEIVES 501 (C) (3) STATUS On August 29, 2006, the LMSC received notification from the Internal Revenue Service that the Club was exempt from the Federal income tax under section 501 (c) 3 of the Internal Revenue Code. The LMSC submitted an appli-cation to the Internal Revenue Service for this recognition. This status was granted after the IRS received and re-viewed extensive financial records and corporate organizational documentation pertaining to the LMSC. One of the primary benefits of being considered tax-exempt under Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3) is the ability to accept contributions and donations that are tax-deductible to the donor. Contributions to the LMSC are now tax-deductible under the Code. In addition, the LMSC is qualified to receive tax deductible bequests, devises, transfers or gifts under the tax code. Additional benefits include exemption from federal and/or state corporate income taxes, the ability to apply for grants and other public or private allocations available only to IRS-recognized 501(c)(3) organizations, discounts on US Postal bulk-mail rates and other services, and the public legitimacy of IRS recognition. The effective date of the exemption dates back to 1989, which marks the inception of the LMSC.

BANTAMS Axelrod Harrison Barnes Allister Bloch Harrison Blume Spencer Bradbeer Thomas Brainsky Isaac Bregman Jamie Colavita Marc Condiotti Joseph Cotler Zev DiFilippo Brett Egan Luke Fink Emilio Hillsberg Eric Hirshman Benjamin Hua Michael Kandel Matthew Lesser Mason Lonner Carson Nelligan JohnMichael Pitonyak Sam Rodgers Ethan Shrestha Ramesh Smolenski Shane Trotti Tommaso

JUNIORS

Chauvelle Sebastien Garno Peter Giordano Luca Goldstein Zach Gorberg Brian Gordon Simon Hausmann Jonah Henderson Will Hetzelson Joshua Higgins Spencer Holquist Isaiah Hurowitz Alex Keiser Ezra Kwass Nicholas Lam Tyler McGrath Ian Moureaud Alex Novacich David Ratchford Luke Rosenberg Sam Rush Joey Torbeck Jack Wallick Nicholas Yaron Tomer

INTERMEDIATES

Adler Jordan Browning Colin Chukinas Robert Cicalese Jacob Daouphars Sorrell DiLoreto Donald Gingold Adam Gold Joshua Henry Spencer Hoffman Matthew Keefe Ryan Kolansky Matthew Maltzman Noah McVail Connor Nichtberger Sam O'Leary Nicholas Rome Jacob Rush Nate Scheuerle Kyle Sheintoch Simon Shonrock Tyler Smith Henry Thatcher James Thompson Angaza Watson Alex Wurth Sam

SENIORS

Ayres William Blackman Matthew Bradbeer J.B. Bushick Kyle Crochiere Henry Dion Joshua Farr Henry Farr Keagan Fink Mathias Gold Max Gordon David Gruber Hayden Harris Nicolas Hawley Brendon Kao Geoffrey Kolansky Jack Kotler Ben McCann Eddie Nemoy Matias Reisner Erik Schlicting Sam Shimell Alec Tassano Elliot Tischler Jake Wallace Max Yankelewitz Dori

MAJORS Abramson Austin Bonilla Roberto Chambers Lucas Cooper Matthew Dadourian Gregory Friggle Zachary Gilboy Timothy Howard Dmitri Levy Greg McGibbon Ian Michnowicz Michael Nemroff Andrew Niemtzow Joshua Norcini Shea Piltch Jamie Pitt Andrew Rogers Daniel Sargeant Jadon Seward James Torczon Corey Vallejo Gustavo Wagner Lucas Wasson Matthew Williamson Matthew Zhang Neil

MICRONS Cappellano Martina Coyne Sadie Eldridge Bethany Famiglio Mason Geis Danielle Goldman Hannah Hitchcock Emma Kaufhold Grace Kaufhold Hannah Lorry Emily Nord Madison Norris Sophie Pansini Maria Parmet Sydney Pelletier Brynn Rorke Grace Rush Kate Scharbach Catherine Silbergeld Lily Sterman Caroline Tevis Abby Wang Lauren

2006 INTRAMURAL ALL STAR GAME ROSTERS QUASARS

Barker Lila Baxter Brooke Berger Sophie Berger Sydney Bushick Kendall Cohen Maya Costa Amanda DeLisser Mimi Doyle Gracie Feingold Samantha Garcia Marissa Gordon Lindsay Hartzell Katherine Kandel Abby Koutcher Carly McKeon Grace Moore Riyo Phillips Tess Salove Kendall Shields Lucy Simon Joely Spector Hannah Sternberg Samantha Tabb Cameryn

PROTONS Bennett Sophie Birmingham Lizzie Cotler Alexa D'Alonzo Elizabeth D'Alonzo Emma Dadourian Elise Epstein Jessica Gladstone Leslie Higgins Dylan Kofsky Haley Kothmann Julia McCarthy Melanie Mezrow Carly Norris Lily Ocampo Katrina Pavao Aly Piasecki Christina Rosenau Julia Shein Kendall Tavares-Mathurin Jehan Wellner Samantha Zamsky Ali

Auritt Vanessa Blat Rotem Constantine Katie DeSouza Emily Dordelman Eliza Eldridge Sophie Goldenberg Anna Goldstein Abigail Hain Tori Harris Adina Kozin Samantha Lynn Julia McCarthy Molly

Nicoletti Francesca Odorisio Joanna Pelletier Hadley Potter Elizabeth Rowe Pinky Rush Melissa Snyder Nicole Soukup Madison Steerman Alixandra Trimble Kayla Wagner Emma

Adams Mackenzie Bennett Jeni Cutler Hannah Dolan Catherine Ebeling Mari Force Soraya Giordano Maria Goldstein Lauren Goldstein Stephanie Janicki Victoria Langfitt Barbara Levy Allison Loftus Erin

Matthai Charlotte Moran Shannon Moureaud Charlotte Newell Rachel O'Connor Grace Price Meghan Price Sara Rose Madeleine Scardecchio Courtney Scheiner Marley Sher Carly Trueswell Emily Unkovic Clare

2006 INTRAMURAL ALL STAR GAME ROSTERS

ELECTRONS COSMOS

2006 ALL STAR GAME PARTICIPANTS AT ROCKET SPORTS

GLADWYNE PLAYGROUND - HOME OF THE MIGHTY PEE-WEES, ATOMS AND NEUTRONS

INTRAMURAL ALL STAR GAME PARTICIPANTS MICHAEL MARK - FEARLESS LEADER OF THE NEUTRONS

JUSTIN DAVIS AND CODY WAX OF THE LMSC MAGIC

THE MIGHTY ATOMS DIVISION AT GLADWYNE PLAYGROUND

LMSC UNDER 13 RED DEVILS

Each year, the LMSC Officers honor our top travel team coaches and one intramural coach for out-standing contribution to the club as well as overall suc-cess in adhering to the club philosophy of "providing each child with a fun filled experience in a soccer envi-ronment." Our Girls Travel Team Coach Of The Year Award goes to Pete Gangl, head coach of the Under 9 LMSC Fury. Pete has been with LMSC for many years, hav-ing coached the LMSC Stingrays up through the Under 14 season. This year, because of his love of soccer and working with young athletes, Pete returned to take a younger girls team. Under Pete’s leadership, the Fury were the first girls ‘B’ team in the club to ever play in the top division of PAGS. They finished with a very impressive 4-5 record in that very competitive division. Midway through the season, Pete was hired to also coach our U-14 boys team, the LMSC Mustangs which had lost their previous coach. LMSC would like to thank Pete for returning to the club and thank him for his excellent coaching job by honoring him as the 2006 Girls Travel Team Coach Of The Year. Our Boys Travel Team Coach Of The Year Award goes to Matt McConnell, head coach for the Under 9 D Dynamo and the Under 11 C Fireballs. Under Matt’s dedicated leadership, both teams reached the champi-onship game of their division. The Dynamo defeated the Del-Val Hurricanes in the semifinals before losing to the Interboro Bucs in the Under 9 Division 5 finals. The Fireballs defeated the Nether Providence Assault in their semifinals, then lost a tough championship game to Yardley Americans. This fall, Matt was also the assistant coach for his daughter’s 6 year old intra-mural team. LMSC would like to thank Matt for all of his great work as a coach over the past years by hon-oring him as our Boys Travel Team Coach Of The Year Our Intramural Coach Of The Year Award goes to Dan Bubnis who ran our Cosmos and Majors Divisions in the intramural program. These are our 11-13 year old divisions and are quite competitive. They are the only divisions that have standings and playoffs. Under Dan’s excellent leadership, both divisions were well organized and ran well all fall. Dan was always getting all information out to coaches in plenty of time, ensur-ing that referees were available, making sure that schedules were maintained and making sure that standings were posted promptly. Dan has been a great addition to our club this year. LMSC would like to thank him for his great work all fall and hopes that he will return to work with us for many more years.

2006 COACH OF THE YEAR AWARDS PREVIOUS LMSC COACH OF THE

YEAR AWARD WINNERS 2006 Matt McConnell Boys Travel Program Pete Gangl Girls Travel Program Dan Bubnis Intramural Program 2005 Scott Fagan Boys Travel Program Rob Rooney Girls Travel Program Tom Gallagher Intramural Program 2004 Will Nord Boys Travel Program Rob Taylor Girls Travel Program Toni Meiers Intramural Program 2003 Gary Smolen Boys Travel Program Casey Ichniowski Girls Travel Program Michael Mark Intramural Program 2002 Tom Pillion Boys Travel Program Nikki Posillico Girls Travel Program Justin Ceccarelli Intramural Program 2001 Walt Einhorn Boys Travel Program Gabe Betancourt Girls Travel Program Casey Ichniowski Intramural Program

2000 Art Corrado Boys Travel Program Will Haines Girls Travel Program Fred Robinson Intramural Program

1999 Miguel Nuila Boys Travel Program Chris Dennis Girls Travel Program Steven Spencer Intramural Program

1998 Rick Whelan Boys Travel Program Rose Miller Girls Travel Program Stephan Axelrod Intramural Program

1997 George Moore Boys Travel Program Danielle Fagan Girls Travel Program Dan Sutton Intramural Program

1996 Ray Hurtado Boys Travel Program Traci Brody Girls Travel Program Joe D’Orazio Intramural Program

1995 Dan Grauman Travel Program Marty Rubenstein Intramural Program

1994 Kip Lord Travel Program Susan Reynolds Intramural Program

1993 Chris Campbell Travel Program

1992 Chris Scott Travel Program

1991 Lance Laver Travel Program

LMSC COACH AND PROGRAM EVALUATION FORM Each year, n order to maintain the quality and safety of the players in our program, LMSC solicits feedback from the players and their families regarding the performance of our coaches this fall as well as the program itself. Feedback is welcome from players and families involved in our Travel Team Program as well as our Fall Intramural Program.

We welcome constructive input (both positive and negative) from the families of the players so that we can better evaluate the performances of the coaches, both head coaches and assistant coaches. We are hoping to use your input as part of our overall evaluation process so that we can offer constructive advice to all coaches and hopefully make their contributions more productive in future seasons. Please also feel free to offer any comments / observa-tions / criticisms about the LMSC Program in general.

Players and families who are interested in providing feedback regarding their coaches, fall season team or program that they participated in this year are encouraged to go to the online feedback link on our web page. Please go to www.lmsc.net and click on the “Program Evaluation” button on our main page or go directly to the evaluation page at www.lmsc.net/program_evaluations.htm

Please offer any and all feedback that you have to offer. Please note that we will ONLY consider feedback that has the evaluators name(s) enclosed. Anonymous letters will be thrown away. ALL evaluations that we receive will be held in complete confidence. Coaches will NOT see the evaluations. The only people who will see these evalua-tions will be the LMSC Officers.

Please be as candid as you like, feel free to offer comments, both positive and negative. If you do not have an opin-ion one way or the other about the coaches of your child’s team, or the club in general, then there is no need to re-turn this form.

A VERY SPECIAL THANK YOU TO ...

The Lower Merion Soccer Club would like to give special thanks to various people who helped make the Fall 2006 season a success. First, we would like to thank the various Fall Intramural Program Division Commissioners:

Bantams: Peter Ross Microns: Steven Schain Atoms & Neutrons: Michael Mark Juniors: Steve Miller Quasars Jon Marx Atoms & Neutrons: Tom Gallagher Intermediates: Dan Watson Protons: Glen Gaddy PeeWees: Justin Ceccarelli Seniors: Drew&Toni Meiers Electrons: Ken Trimble Special Needs: Steven Spencer Majors: Dan Bubnis Cosmos: Dan Bubnis We would like to thank our intramural referee assignors who did their best to assign referees to all games every weekend: Becca Greenberg and Andrew Meiers.

A special thank you also to the our field crew managers who headed up the work at the various fields we used this fall, including: Trent Tattar, Kalle Blindenbacher, Dan Rosner and Jake Schutzman. A special thanks also to Peter Pappas, our travel team goalkeeper trainer. Peter has done an excellent job over the past five years in both the fall and spring, training our goalkeepers. Peter has been the starting goalkeeper the past 10 years with the Philadelphia Kixx indoor team. A special thank you to Lindsay Taylor, head of the Lower Merion Township’s Department of Parks and Recreation. Her support in helping us identify fields for our use has been very significant and much appreciated.

We would also like to thank all of the coaches in both the Travel Team Program and the Fall Intramural Program. Thank you again to everyone for making the fall 2006 season a great success.

The 2006 Winter Newsletter is dedicated to Baci

LOWER MERION SOCCER CLUB Box 360 Bryn Mawr, PA 19010

2006 - 2007 Lower Merion Soccer Club Winter Newsletter Cannibals Win Fourth Straight Delco League Championship Misfits, Heart, Lasers and Charge Win League Titles Intramural All Star Game Rosters Developmental Travel Team Rosters And Season Review Travel Team League Wrap-Up

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2006 - 2007 winter newsletter

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