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   

Persistency to Consistency.

I believe it is important not to worry about the numbers when striving for consistency.  I do not speak to my teams about winning or losing.  I do not keep individual statistics for players.  If we dwell on numbers, we tend to become shortsighted about other things including the big picture.  If we strive for consistency, the numbers and wins will take care of themselves.

In this regard, our competition is not the opposing team, but our previous performance. Can we be consistent in good performance? Can we improve our performance on a consistent basis? I cannot measure myself against someone else for I am not that person. I can only measure myself against me. Am I consistent?  Am I better today than I was yesterday?

The key is Consistency is Persistency.

Lima Senior 6 Toledo Bowsher 0

I was unable to make it back to town in time for this game but have heard really good reports about the Spartan's play.  Two blowout wins in a row running the system of play we worked on in team camp this summer.  Great job gentlemen!

My understanding is the Spartans continue to get balanced scoring, a hallmark of this system of play. In today's match Colton Fry (2), Taylor Mericle, Alex Ehora, Caleb Grundisch and Levi Quintero all registered goals for Lima Senior!  Outstanding sharing of the ball and work load men!

Lima Senior Head Coach Mitch Monfort had this to say on facebook about the Spartans performance, "Best passing spacing and creativity that I have ever seen from a lsh (Lima Senior High) team.

That's high praise, right there.

Congratulations and keep the wins coming!

Lima Senior 8 Van Wert 1

I traveled to Van Wert tonight to check in on the Lima Senior Spartans.  Conceive Believe Achieve Soccer has conducted the Spartans team camp the past couple of summers and it has been a wonderful experience for us. A great group of hard working young men with a dedicated coaching staff of Mitch Monfort, Phil Vermillion and Matt Berney. It has been a most rewarding experience to witness the progress this program has made in the past 15 months.

Lima Senior plays one of the craziest schedules around. They battle the big boys of the TRAC conference - Findlay, Toledo St. Johns and Toledo St. Francis - and also mix in some WBL, NWC and WOSL schools.  Lack of consistency in the Spartans play has haunted them a bit during the first part of the season. They had stellar stretches of play against St. Johns and Findlay where it looked like they were ready to break through and then have had head shaking performances against other teams that left one wondering if they were ever going to get it right?

The Lima Senior Spartans got it right tonight at Van Wert against the Cougars. This was one the best team performances I have seen this fall. The Spartans were dominant from the opening whistle through the final whistle.  It was pure pleasure watching them play this evening as they really moved the ball side to side, forward and back and forward again. There was a steady stream of diagonal passes and crosses came from anywhere and everywhere. Talk about manipulating a defense?  WOW!  Just, wow!   This was beautiful soccer. The beautiful game at its best.

Senior Alex Ehora got the scoring started in the games 4th minute when he chipped the Van Wert goalkeeper from slightly right of goal at distance of about 27 yards.  The Cougars failed to get pressure on the ball and Ehora made them pay the price.

In the games 7th minute sophomore Caleb Grundisch playing as the holding midfielder pounced on  loose ball deflected off the Van Wert goalkeepers hands passing it into the back of the net from a distance of 12 yards out.

Nine minutes later junior Jayden Weltmer was left attended just right of goal at a distance of 24 yards and did what any good soccer player would do. He shot and scored the goal for his team.

The Spartan defense was instrumental in starting these attacks especially in switching the ball and making the initial passes to the feet of target players.  The outside backs also made well timed forays into the attack further pressuring and stretching Van Wert's defensive shape.

It was after the Spartans third goal in the games 19th minute that their defense made its one serious blunder as a center back was caught stepping to the ball when he should have been giving ground with his back line mates. Cougar midfielder Eric Yeung chipped the center defender playing Jacob Williamson in on goal. Lima Senior goalkeeper Eyon Berney was able to deflect the ball but not prevent it from trickling into the net for the Cougar's lone score.

Freshman Colton Fry scored next for Lima Senior when in the games 26th minute he struck a ball from 30 yards out on the left flank that found its way over the Van Wert goalkeepers outstretched arms and below the cross bar to put the Spartans up by a three goal margin once again.

The final tally of the first half came in the games 32nd minute when Caleb Grundisch played Alex Ehora in for a shot from 22 yards out just to the right of the arc. Ehora finished to the back post side netting to make it 5-1 Lima Senior at the half.

The Spartans began the second half of the match as they had finished the first half with strong possession play backed by rock solid defense. It took less than 5 minutes to put goal number six on the board for the Spartans. Senior center back Levi Quintero played a long diagonal cross forward to Nicky Shauf who defeated a defender and drove towards goal before placing a shot into the net from a distance of 9 yards.

In the games 58th minute it was Alex Ehora playing a short through ball for an assist of sophomore striker Luis Mendez's goal from 15 yards out.  Mendez is one of the really good young players in the area and it was nice to see him get rewarded with the goal. He is not going to get mentioned nearly as often as he might, but the havoc he wreaks on opposing defenses with his movement and one touch play should not go unmentioned.

Lima Senior's final goal came in the games 76th minute when senior defender Taylor Mericle got onto a loose ball in front of the Cougar net off a deflected Colton Fry corner kick.

The final was 8 - 1 in Lima Senior's favor, but I want to point out that the Spartans could have named their score tonight such was the dominating performance they gave. Head coach Mitch Monfort should be credited with playing a lot of players and mixing up his line up over much of the second half of this game. The Spartans continued to play their possession style game but the final pass and finishing touches were a tad less efficient than when the front line players were in the game in their preferred positions. A nice display of sportsmanship by the Spartans.

It should also be noted that 7 different Spartans scored goals tonight. Only Alex Ehora scored twice. There was no running up the score or padding individual player statistics here tonight. This type of balance is a product of the system of play the Spartans have embraced. Versatility in the attack and balanced scoring are trademarks of this system of play. When ran properly it is extremely difficult to defend against.

In closing I just want to reiterate one final time what a pure pleasure it was to watch this Lima Senior team play this evening. The way they went about their business this evening is why we can call soccer the beautiful game. Well done Spartans!

Lima Senior 7 Fremont Ross 2

On a wild and crazy evening at Lima Stadium the Spartans came away with a 7 - 2 victory over the visiting Little Giants of Fremont Ross.  Clear skies and game time temperatures near 70 degrees made it an ideal evening for soccer. Veteran referees Dave Webb and Kevin Fischer were on hand to oversee the action on the field.

The Spartans began their assault on the Little Giants goal almost from the opening whistle and finally broke through in the 13th minute of the match when Danny Grundisch played Hunter Vermillion in behind the defense along the right flank.  Vermillion executed a bow tie moving allowing the hard charging Ross sweeper to go by him and then beat the on-coming goalkeeper to the side netting at the back post from a distance of 15 yards.

Congratulations Campers!

Three of the teams we worked with this summer had their opening matches Saturday.... and all three teams won!

Congratulations to the Liberty Center Lady Tigers on their  3-2 win over Toledo Bowsher!

Congratulations to the Lima Senior Spartans on their 4-0 win over Lincolnview!

Congratulations to the Piqua Indians on their 11-0 win over Preble Shawnee!

May continued success follow each of you throughout your seasons!