MENTORING THE MENACE >>

Friday, July 6, 2007

The last few weeks have been successful for the Menace and I. We had a great showing at Sioux Falls, where it was great to see the guys playing as a team again. This entire season, through all of our ups and downs, I have always felt strongly that winning heals a lot. Victories have certainly been big morale boosters for this team, especially our younger guys.

The following weekend we played Thunder Bay at home. Unfortunately we were delayed that Friday night because of bad weather. Saturday proved to be our day as we defeated Thunder Bay 5-2. It was a great match for us, everyone played well and I was happy with the performance both individually and as a team.

The following day had a disappointing result for us as we fell short to Thunder Bay 1-0. The hardest part about that defeat was that we scored 5 goals on the same team the evening before. We gave up an easy goal and weren’t able to recover. Even with Saturday’s victory, we didn’t accomplish what we had to that weekend. It was a devastating loss for us.

Last weekend we hosted the SpitFire in an exhibition match. It was also our Kick for the Cure, Breast Cancer Awareness night so all of the players wore pink Menace jerseys during the match. We defeated the SpitFire and raised over $6,000 in our pink jersey live auction. This was an especially important night for one of players Johnny Pagel, whose mother is a survivor.

It was great to have a weekend break from the PDL, I think it helped all of players recuperate and rest. We have had a great week of training sessions and I feel confident that Saturday could be the catalyst that starts a winning streak for us. This weekend’s match against the undefeated Kansas City Brass is a must win for us. They are in first place and undefeated, but they have tied three times and are making their first trip to Waukee Stadium this weekend.

It will be a challenging match because we are missing several players, but as I have said all season long I have great trust in every player on this team. We have a very talented team and there is no doubt in my mind that we can put together an 18 that will get the job done against Kansas City.