Hello CAL Soccer! 

US Nat'l Team -- Can you believe the US National Team? They put on a great show today. My Facebook post tonight was, ... Coach Lucas hopes the USA public will appreciate the odds that were stacked against the US National Team in the game against Spain today. USA snapped Spain's 35-game unbeaten streak. Spain hadn't lost for years! Spain had some of the world's most talented players. USA had some of the world's hardest-working athletes. Spain, at times, made it look like a shooting gallery. Gansler was right: "Passion, quite often, trumps talent." It's not that the US wasn't talented. They actually looked great! But as rankings go, for whatever they're worth, Spain is considered by FIFA as the 1st-ranked team in the world; USA is #14. Either way, Good luck Sunday afternoon, USA!

Ryan and Austin -- And on the very same day, Javanon 92s (featuring our own Ryan Miller and Austin Chitwood) pulled off a big win at regionals against the Chicago Fire juniors... meaning that Ryan and Chitty are headed to Boston for Nationals -- for the 2nd year in a row! Wish them luck and say a prayer as they face off against the best teams in the USA in a quest for a National Championship!

Tryouts -- Tryouts were originally scheduled for the evening of July 15th (our first available tryout/practice day). However, CAL has recently instituted a new policy that Wednesday nights are guarded as "church nights" even during summer. So we can't practice after 5pm at any time during the year. Because I'm guessing several willing players have summer jobs, it looks like the most prudent course of action would be to move tryouts to Thursday night, July 16th, 6-9pm. Rosters will be announced at 11pm that evening, via the website, www.calsoccer.net.

The Dead Period -- As you recall, the KHSAA institutes a so-called "dead period" each summer with a goal of providing players with a break from soccer (and all high school sports). This is the ideal time, in their opinion, for families to take a vacation, a family trip, or just downtime away from the game. . . and away from the pressures of high school sports. Unfortunately, the dead period begins in some 23 minutes! :-) Seriously... It runs June 25th through July 9th. During that time, neither the coaches nor the Athletic Dept can initiate contact with student athletes or their families. I have been told that we can answer questions of administrative nature, however. So if something comes up -- by all means don't feel that you'll be kicked out of the state if you ask a question :-), but what we can't do is organize conditioning, recruit players, call to remind you of the importance of working out, or anything else. On July 10th, we'll send out reminders about tryouts. In the meantime, you could do us a big favor and pass the word among your friends. We hope that on July 16th we'll have exactly the players that God intends for us to put together for 2009 CAL Soccer!

Change in "fitness test" -- For the past several years, we've been staging a two-mile run on the opening night of tryouts. We picked that idea up from a myriad of other soccer coaches who organize their tryouts in a similar fashion. I'm not sorry we have approached things that way. Each year, we've improved a bit. At the same time... I've been listening to input from several different sources this year, not the least of which were a group of doctors from the sports medicine teaching staff at Norton Hospital and other medical facilities throughout the state (at the required annual KHSAA medical symposium last Saturday). In between sessions, I cornered a top-notch sports physician who trains doctors throughout the region. I explained the situation and her response was simple: "Is the run fully accomplishing the objectives you envision?" I had to answer no, in that -- the objective is to help players take personal responsibility for their fitness -- so we don't have to use practice time for fitness training beginning from a dead zero level on July 16th.  The truth is, as she pointed out, several or even many players still seem to procrastinate... so when they come into July 16th and face the brick wall of the opening tryouts, they get everything from blisters to knee pain. She pointed out that in reality, I might actually be hurting the team more than helping it. I asked her for ideas and she gave me several... and we'll be instituting some. But the bottom line is: Players will not have to begin tryouts with a two-mile run this fall. Instead, we'll measure fitness with a series of timed sprints with recovery walks in between.

Warning: You can't wait 'til tryouts to condition -- But here's the honest-to-goodness truth: You cannot achieve greatness... nor will we ever reach the level we all want to reach... if you wait 'til tryouts to start conditioning. Please organize workouts on your own. Get together with a buddy. Step off a 10-yard sprint for starters. Increase the number of sprints each day for a week. The second week, step off a 20-yard sprint. Again, go from something easy to something that stretches your fitness. The third week, step off a 30- and a 40-yard sprint. At this point (3 weeks) the dead period will be over. You'll have the last week... the 4th week... to increase to 50-yard sprints. Between each sprint, walk back to your starting point. Take this kind of interval training seriously please.

Check our schedule -- You'll find practice schedules and game info at our website, www.calsoccer.net. Please write the games into your calendars. Morning conditioning schedule will resemble last year's. (Thanks Toby and Ty!) Let's do this!

Full coaching staff -- Spread the word. This year we have a coaching staff of a head coach and two assistants for varsity ... plus a head coach and an ass't for JV as well. Please talk to your CAL friends of all high school ages. This is an excellent year to start. JV will be extremely developmental, meaning that if you can run and you want to play, we'd love to have you. We need to build the JV program. Let's do it. Bolster the numbers. Bring a friend. And with the two-mile run switching to sprints and intervals this year, it's a great time to bring in new guys that were scared off by a 13-minute deadline.

Once again, we're looking forward to CAL Soccer 2009. I need to send this email now. But I'll be praying for you during the dead period. See you on the other side! On behalf of our JV coaches, Coach Justin Guest and Coach Matt McFarren, ... as well as our varsity assistants Toby and Ty, thanks for being part of CAL Soccer. We look forward to getting started on July 16th.

Coach Lucas and your CAL Coach staff