Announcing the 1st Annual Spartan Soccer Coaching Clinic!

We are proud to announce we will be hosting a coaching clinic in Spartan Stadium on Saturday June 25 from 9:00 am - 4:30 pm featuring internationally known coach / author Graham Ramsay and the University of Northwestern Ohio Men's and Women's staff!

The cost of this clinic is only $35.00 if you pre-register as we want to make this opportunity easily accessible to all interested parties.

Attached you will find the bio's of the coaches who will be presenting and a registration form.  Please register early!  We will also accept walk up registration the day of the event at a cost of $40.00

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me in response to this email or at 567-204-6083 (cell / text)  Looking forward to seeing you there!

                                       Lima Senior High School  

        

Coach’s Clinic

June 25, 2016             9:00 am – 4:00 pm                  Spartan Stadium

Featuring

Graham Ramsay: Internationally known soccer coach and author. Graham has successfully helped to develop numerous young players into D1 NCAA players and captains, as well as professionals. Having coached in Aston Villa’s Youth Development program his forte is in developing players, coaching academy teams and in sharing his wealth of knowledge with others through clinics, symposiums and camp experiences. Dramatically improving a team’s functioning as well as individual player’s capabilities and understanding of the beautiful game are Graham’s calling cards.

Stuart Gore: University of Northwestern Ohio women’s soccer coach. Entering his 4^th season, Stuart has already built the Racers into a national title contender. After a playing career featuring time with the English National Team’s youth sides, Leeds United, University of Montevallo and UD Lorca Stuart turned his attention to coaching the beautiful game with assisting roles on the club, collegiate and professional levels before becoming head coach of the Women’s Professional Soccer League’s Philadelphia franchise and finally landing at UNOH.

Gavin Oldham: University of Northwestern Ohio men’s soccer coach. Entering his 5^th season, Gavin has built the Racers into a perennial league and national title contender. After a successful playing career at Lindsey Wilson College Gavin had coaching stops at his alma mater as a graduate assistant and head men’s assistant / Head JV coach before landing his current position with UNOH

Jen Dervarics: Entering her 4^th season as an assistant coach with UNOH’s women’s soccer program. Jen played collegiately at Bucknell where she was a four year starter and professionally for the Philadelphia Fever. She began her coaching career as a volunteer assistant at Bucknell before coming to UNOH

The  (tentative) Schedule

8:00 am – 8:45 am           Check-in and registration

9:00 am – 10:15 am         Stuart Gore – Possession with a Purpose

10:20 am – 11:30 am       Jen Dervarics – Forward Play

11:45 am – 12:45 pm       Lunch Break  -

1:00 pm – 2:15 pm           Gavin Oldham -

2:20 pm – 3:30 pm           Graham Ramsay –

3:30 pm – 4:00 pm           Question and Answer Session

                                    

                                       Lima Senior High School          

Soccer Coaching Clinic

June 25, 2016                    9:00 am – 4:00 pm                        Spartan Stadium

Registration Form

Name: ___________________________Phone __________________

Address: _________________________________________________

City: __________________________ State: ________ Zip: _________

School/Club/Organization: ___________________________________

Age Group and Gender you coach: ____________________________

Pre-Registration Clinic Fee                   $35.00

Walk-in Registration Day of Clinic         $40.00

Make checks payable to:        Tim Brown

Return to                                 Tim Brown

                                                One Spartan Way

                                                Lima, Ohio 45804   

A New Journey

I have not written much of late primarily because I have accepted the position of Head Coach / Program Director for Men's Soccer at Lima Senior High School.  To be perfectly honest, this is a position I have had my eye on for the last 7 years.  I have conducted summer camps for the program in the past and was an assistant coach last season.

What exactly appeals to me about coaching at Lima Senior?

First and foremost are the people. I met several former Spartans when they came to play for Grand Lake United. Not only were they seriously good athletes and solid soccer players, but to a man they were really good people from really good family's.  Then there is the fact Lima Senior is the only Division I school in our area and they play in one of the best, albeit top heavy, conferences in the state. In short, I want to compete against the best in the state and believe Lima Senior can do this.

I have debated these past few months concerning sharing this ride with the loyal readers of the CBA blog and exactly how to do so. I am not comfortable in doing an all inclusive behind the scenes look at a high school program featuring student athletes of 14 - 18 years of age. However, I do feel sharing our journey with you will be of benefit to other coaches and student / athletes making similar treks.

Coming off an 8-6-3 season, returning 11 starters and virtually every major contributor expectations are high. Add in the return of two very good players who missed last season and one would think those expectations would be soaring. Such is not necessarily the case though.

The Three Rivers Athletic Conference (TRAC) is home to three perennial soccer powers in Findlay, Toledo St. Francis and Toledo St. Johns.  To win a league championship Lima Senior will need to defeat these teams. To win sectional, district and regional titles Lima Senior will need to beat one or more of these teams in addition to other opponents of the highest quality in Northwest Ohio.

In past TRAC matches with the above referenced teams a pattern has developed that sees Lima Senior play well for long stretches before surrendering a goal. At that point body language deteriorates and the proverbial flood gates open.  To be honest, the Lima Senior Spartans have lacked true belief they are capable of playing with and defeating any of the three powers in the TRAC,

This is where our journey begins. How does one motivate a team to step outside their established comfort zone and expand their confidence, their belief that not only can they defeat anyone they face, but instill a belief they will defeat anyone and everyone they face?

This is not an easy question to answer, but thankfully we do have some real life examples to borrow from.  The biographical movie Patton is nothing if not a portrait in instilling discipline in the troops. From General Patton taking over a ragtag US II Corps who had had their collective asses kicked and turning them into a fighting machine to the forced march to relieve a besieged Bastogne where elements of the 3rd Army disengaged, marched over 100 miles in deplorable conditions and reengaged the Germans in just 48 hours.  We also have a present day savant in Jim Harbaugh whose culture of meritocracy and cauldron of competition has brought positive results wherever he has coached.  Both of these great leaders believe deeply in preparing for the moment. One of my favorite sayings is Failing to prepare properly is preparing to fail.  From proper preparation comes confidence. This is key.

I am working on instilling new levels of discipline, competitiveness and confidence in our program, but this is only part of the solution. The most important aspect of change being brought is in the area of player leadership and player buy-in to the changes. We have begun leadership training using Jeff Jannsen materials among other sources. There is no miracle snap your fingers "cure" available here. It will be a slow (and hopefully) steady progression of instilling discipline, instilling confidence, establishing trust and fostering buy-in.  We do need a sense of urgency as we go through this progress as the season is only 4 months away. When we finally roll the balls out for practice, we need to be ready to go.

Alex Ehora - Scholar Athelete of the Week

Watch the feature on Lima Senior High School and Grand Lake United player at the link below

http://www.hometownstations.com/category/191231/video?clipId=10739562&autostart=true

Alex is fine young man who I have had the distinct pleasure honor and privilege of getting to know through soccer. The video provides a small glimpse of this.

Well deserved honor.

Congratulations Alex! 

Consistency

While I was watching the Toledo St. Francis at Lima Senior men's soccer game last night consistency was on my mind.  Lima Senior was coming off two sterling offensive performances albeit not against foes the quality of this Knights team.  Nonetheless, I went into the evening looking for consistency in the Spartan's performance.

Coaches preach about consistency of performance all the time. We build it into every aspect of the team that we can. Same warm up routine everyday in practice and for pre-game.  Same formation every game. Same personnel in the same positions every game.  We do these things to establish a comfort level for the players. Everyone in "their" position with the same role and expectations.

Remember the scene in Hoosiers where upon arriving at the site for the state championship Gene Hackman's character pulls out a measuring tape and has them measure the height of the basket?  In soccer we could measure the size of the goal, the size of the penalty area or the center circle.  Consistency.

So it was that I looked for arrow and stick on the defensive side of the ball and winning the ball, securing the ball with a SAFE PASS and them finding the path of least resistance to goal via playing the way they faced and allowing player movement to dictate ball movement. These things had been constants in the Spartans play in recent matches, Would they be present against an elite opponent like St. Francis?

The good news is much of this was in evidence during the first half of the match. True, the Spartans had to defend for long stretches of the first half, but they did so within themselves and within the teams defensive scheme and philosophy.  The Spartans took everything the Knights had and stood firm. Lima Senior was consistent in their defensive performance.

The Spartans struggled more on the offensive side, but there were signs of consistency here as well. Those opening minutes of the match when both teams were settling in saw crisp smart possession by the Spartans giving proof that they are capable of playing their game even against an elite team like the Knights.  The question then became one of whether Lima Senior could sustain consistency?

The answer to that question is yes, and no.

The Spartans took the lead in this match on one of their first forays into the Knights half of the pitch. Alex Ehora took a shot on goal from approximately 35 yards out. The Knights goalkeeper bobbled the ball and Connor Aboujaoude was there to put the rebound into the net.  The Spartans led 1 - 0! 

My immediate thought was, OK, the Knights just got slapped upside the head are the Spartans ready for the counter punch?  Moments later Colton Fry had an opportunity to put Lima Senior on the board again when he broke free from the left flank. Unfortunately Fry's shot hit side netting on the outside of the goal. 

Then came the St. Francis counter punch.

The Knights scored twice late in the first half. The first goal came off a loose ball rebound that a Knight volleyed in from a distance of 20 yards out. The second goal came from a long throw-in to the back post where a St. Francis player headed the ball into the goal. The significance here is it took spectacular goals to get St. Francis on the board and give them the lead.

The Spartans played a fairly consistent half of soccer. They were in the match at half time. Could Lima Senior sustain the effort into and throughout the second half?

The answer to that was unfortunately a resounding "No."

The Knights tacked on 4 more goals in the first 10 minutes of the second half. One of those came with a Lima Senior Spartan lying prone in the penalty area with an injury. A most unsporting goal and definitely outside the spirit of the beautiful game. The first of these four goals looked like an own goal off another long throw-in. The second came off an errant pass along the top of the Spartans 18 and the third from a loose ball scramble inside the Lima Senior penalty area. Only the fourth  goal could be said to be earned by the a build up of play by the Knights.

Consistency?

Actually, yes.  Lima Senior has had a pattern of playing elite level teams even for long stretches of time only to suffer through inexplicable periods of near complete breakdown that allows those teams to pull away.  Last night it was the last 10 minutes of the first half yielding two spectacular goals and surrendering 4 goals in the first 10 minutes of the second half.  Six goals in 20 minutes of playing time.

The real point of emphasis here has to be those first 10 minutes of the second half. Why did the Spartans get blitzed like that?  The first goal was a bit fluky and might be attributed to poor or lack of communication among the Spartan defenders. It might well have been the tipping point in the match. In my opinion this was the point where the Spartans temporarily lost all sense of positive consistency. Individual effort went up but collective effort diminished for Lima Senior. In short, the Spartan's panicked.

Adversity is the enemy of consistency.

Therefore learning to deal with adversity is the key to being able to give consistent effort throughout a closely contested match. The Spartans are at the "learning to win" stage of development in their program. It is a process. The key is in the details of the process.  Learning to focus on what they can control and doing this to the best of their ability is enough to get this team and their program over the hump.  They are proving this is so over long stretches of play against great competition.  They waiver in conviction and focus for brief periods in these difficult matches and that is their undoing for now.

Consistency in belief.

Consistency in trust.

Consistency in leadership.

Consistency in adhering to the system of play.

These are the things that bring consistency to performance.

As the second half wore on, Lima Senior did begin to regain some semblance of previous consistency. It came first in their defensive play and then begin to transfer to their attacking play.  I am a firm believer that players are the experts in the game. Watch them play video games . They lose a life, go back to the beginning and try a different way to beat that level of play. And they keep doing this until they advance.  Soccer players are like this.  The Spartans eventually began finding their way again. They began slowing the Knights attack and working within their defensive scheme to regain possessions. From there they looked to secure possession with safe passes and attack in rhythm and with pace. It wasn't a smooth process, but it was and will continue to be a process.  In this match it resulted in a second Lima Senior goal via a well struck free kick from Alex Ehora.  Two scores against a quality side... that's progress in the process.

I'm not a big one on moral victory but am huge on recognizing progress in the process.  That continues to occur at Lima Senior. Everyone recognizes the strides this program is making... and there is some frustration the process is not delivering better results faster than it is. Remember the progress already made and stay committed to continuing forward in the process.

Stay true to your defensive system.        Defend to attack.        Attack via the path of least resistance.

Persistency to Consistency.  

Lima Senior vs Toledo St Johns

I made my way to Spartan Stadium on Tuesday evening to see the soccer match between Toledo St. John's and Lima Senior.  Historically this has been a very lopsided series. I believe last years match ended as a 10-0 St. John's victory and understand this to be a typical score when these two meet on the pitch. This type of dominance can be difficult to overcome, but it most certainly can be done.

A few years ago I took over a local high school program that had never had a winning season. Over an 11 year span the average score of their matches had been 1 - 5.  In my 2 years at the school we went 21-12-5 with an average score in our matches of  3 -  1.  Part of that process included teaching the players in that program they could indeed compete with teams who had beaten them year after year. The players set goals like "we just want to score against them" and "we just want to keep it close"  In the days leading up to last nights match up these are the type of comments I heard from the Lima Senior players and parents. Unacceptable in my mind.

Why admit defeat before ever playing the game?

If that's your attitude, let's just forfeit the match and prepare for one where the odds are more to our liking.

I never spoke of winning or losing to that program we turned around. I was appalled when we lost 0-1 to a team that had trounced them year after year and our players celebrated the moral victory like they had just won the World Cup. I remember watching those kids jumping for joy over a loss and thinking about how far we still had to go in changing the culture of the program. I had the same feeling heading into last nights match.

The Spartans lost the match before the opening whistle blew. They had conceded defeat and were looking for moral victory. The Spartan players wanted to score against St. Johns.  That's it.  They would be happy with or settle for scoring against Toledo St. Johns.

This is a talented Lima Senior team. It might be the best team in the Lima area this season. They will not prove that to be true until they change their thinking. The Spartans have made so much progress in the past 15 months. I believe our camp experiences with the Spartans have played a small part in this, but head coach Mitch Monfort and his assistants Phil Vermillion and Matt Berney deserve credit for their work with this team. It has been thrilling to observe the changes coming over the program. I firmly believe they are ready to take a huge step as a program... but it will not happen until they change their expectations.

Conceive
Believe
Achieve

The Spartans do not fully believe they can compete in every match. There are teams on their schedule who they still look at as certain losses.  I'm calling b.s. on this type of thinking.  This Spartan team can compete with anyone. I believe this to be true, but it is the team who must develop and nurture this belief in themselves.  Moral victory be damned. Upsets happen every day, so why not for the Spartans? 

In last nights match it was immediately obvious that Toledo St. Johns is a quality side. Their pace of play was astonishing. Every single time the ball moved all 11 of their players were in motion as well. Talk about player movement? Oh my! Their communication was outstanding. Coupled with excellent first touch and limiting themselves to one or two touch play the ball was zipping around the field with amazing speed. 

Even so, the Spartans stood their ground well. They had to defend most of the time, but did so as a team and with poise under constant pressure. When you can defend well, you will always have a chance for victory.

Zachary Roller put the Titans on the board in the games 9th minute. The confidence St. Johns were playing with gave every indication of their belief this was going to be another rout of the Spartans.  Lima Senior did not fold. They stood tall and continued to battle. Even when Camden Buescher scored for St Johns in the 12th minute of the game there didn't appear to be any panic in the Spartans.

When the whistle sounded for half time the score remained 0-2 in favor of St. Johns and Lima Senior had begun to generate some attack.  The Spartans had just pitched a shutout against the Titans for the final 28:20 of the first half.

That fact did not go unnoticed on the Titans sideline.

It wasn't until the games 51st minute that Buescher scored once again for St. Johns.  Lima Senior had shut the Titans down for 40 straight minutes.  That equates to one entire half of soccer.  Who says, the Spartans cannot compete against the big boys?

A big portion of the credit for the shut out 40 minutes of action goes to Spartan goalkeeper Caleb Grundisch (14 saves) and the Spartan back line of Hunter Vermillion, Levi Quintero, Taylor Mericle and Antrelle Blisset who played as a unit and had one another's back in protecting their goal.

I wouldn't say there was panic on the St Johns sidelines, but I was watching their coaching staff during the match. Their head coach went from a relaxed confidence to prowling the sidelines and actively coaching / imploring his team during those 40 minutes of scoreless soccer.  As another 19 minutes of scoreless play ticked off the clock it was evident that while the Titans felt confident of the victory they were not pleased with the closeness of the score.

St Johns got back on the board with under 10 minutes to play when Sergio Gonzales-Brana scored on a header off a corner kick. Although Lima Senior had begun to substitute frequently, St. Johns kept many of their front line players in. The Titans scored two more goals in those final minutes. In the games 76th minute Zachary Buescher received sideways on with his first touch leading to goal behind the Spartans back line and his second touch finding the back of the net. And in the games 80th minute Z. Buescher scored again when he gathered a loose ball and broke in behind the Spartan defenders.

Seriously?  St. Johns poured in 3 goals in the games final 9:30 of play?

Obviously there is a bit more to this story.

The Spartans had two brilliant chances to score goals after the Titans went up 3-0.  Alex Ehora was played in behind the Titans defense and only a very solid play by the St Johns goal keeper Jarrett Karalfa kept the Spartans off the board. Then, Ehora blasted a shot off the post a short time later that might as well have been a lightening bolt going through the St Johns sidelines. It woke the Titans up and led to many of their starters being in the game for those final 9 minutes of play.

Yeah, Titan coach Thomas Shook was sending a message. He wanted to reassert the idea of Titan dominance over the Spartans. Again, I call b.s. on this very notion. This Spartan team is for real and they will begin to show it just as soon as they move beyond settling for moral victory and begin believing they can play with anyone. As soon as that happens this program is going to take off.  Will that be yet this season?

That's up to the Spartans to decide, but I see no reason why it shouldn't be.