Tulsa

This time the weather looks decent. 70's and 50's with only a small chance of rain on Sunday morning.

Both games are at 9:30 am at the Bixby-Keas Soccer Complex.

615 N. Riverview Dr.
Bixby, OK 74008

https://goo.gl/maps/9h3dm

Google maps says it's about a 22 minute drive from the hotel.

Check this out: Home team wears dark. We are listed as 'away' for both games. So, bring everything, but odds are that we are wearing white on Saturday and smelling bad on Sunday. Maybe we can go white-navy-white the first day and all white on Sunday? Stay tuned.

I'm on the United flight that gets in just after 7:00 pm. I think y'all know how to get a hold of me. Call or text if you need something. 713-504-5049.

If I don't happen to see you Friday night, let's plan on meeting at the hotel lobby at 7:50 am on Saturday morning. Or, you can be adventurous and just meet us at the field. Allow for a little extra time, just in case. We want to make sure to have the full 45 minute warm up beforehand.

I think all the girls traveling alone have a room/family to stay with. If anyone needs last minute help with that, let me know.

I couldn't get the giant van this time, but I did get a large SUV. If anyone wants to send some kids my way and sleep in a little extra, I'm happy to help.

College soccer and video

Many of you were able to attend the meeting last Saturday with all the college coaches. I thought it was very helpful, so first off...a big thank you to Mark for putting that together. 

I don't know if I can sum up everything we learned in the meeting, but one of the takeaways was that it can be very helpful if the girls have video highlights for the coaches to look at. Another important takeaway was that the college recruiting process starts earlier for girls than for boys. And that this summer and next are potentially very important for those girls that want to play in college. 

It stands to reason that our daughters might have more "highlight opportunities" this spring in State Cup play than this upcoming fall in PLW play. So, it would behoove us to film these upcoming games. 

I realize that this year has been an expensive one, so I don't want to force this on the team. We can have the same people we've used before come out and tape our games and even put together highlight clips for individual players. Rick Schachter has done all the leg work on this, and it looks like the economics are like this:

$170 base fee for taping the game. 

$50 per player per game for highlights (which you can choose to add after the fact). 

They can come to 4 of our games this Spring. 

Obviously, the whole team benefits from taping the games. And I suppose, if your video editing skills are good, you could even make your own highlight reel. 

I'd like to get some feedback from you all. Who would be willing to chip in and split the costs of having them come to the games? I am in. Please email me if you are interested. 

HESC College Combine and Thursday Training

Tonight we are moving our training to 7:30-9:00 on L4.

Saturday we will play Texas Rush at 10:00 on SC1. Please be there by 9:15. We will be wearing green-white-white. Please bring your white jersey just in case. 

Sunday we are on SC4 again at 10:00 against the Dynamos. Same drill...be there by 9:15. This time we will wear all navy. Bring white in case. 

Don't forget that Saturday evening is the college coach Q&A session at Hotel Derek from 5:00 to 6:30. Your daughter is welcome and encouraged to come. 

Lastly, hopefully you've finalized your plans to Tulsa. Will you please shoot me an email if you have any issues or conflicts with this trip? 

Weekend Update

Tulsa
I count only 5 reservations for our team in Tulsa, and the guaranteed block has run out. There are still rooms available, but now it's first come first serve. See the prior post for the link to make a reservation.

If you are unable to make it to the Tulsa game let me know ASAP. If your daughter needs to stay with someone please let me know that too. I booked an extra room under my name that can accommodate a couple girls if need be.

Practice this week
Mark is out, and we are going to skip this Sunday practice. Tuesday we are on L4 with Coach Mac. Wednesday we have Roz, and then Futsal. Thursday our fearless leader, Mark will return, and back to usual programming.

State Cup
The State Cup schedule has been posted. You can view it here or from the link on the homepage. There are 5 games. They start April 12, and are every Sunday. Burroughs park for the first four games and Lindsay Lyons for the last one.


Questions? Comments? Concerns? Call or email me!

Updates on this season

First off, I was remiss in my job as manager. I want to formally welcome Jessica and Erika to the team. We have gotten to know them for a while now, and loved having them at the Disney tournament. You all know this by now, but they are officially on the roster now. 

We are signed up for State Cup. Play should begin on the weekend of April 11-12. We will have five games from that weekend on, and if we place first or second, we will play in the State Finals in San Marcos on May 23-25. If we win there, we advance to the Region III tournament in Little Rock. As you may know, Mark used to live in Little Rock, and I spend a fair amount of time there (for work). So, suffice it to say that we have connections there and know the town. A trip to Little Rock would be a lot of fun! This is our goal!

Don't forget about NPL games. We have our Tulsa trip coming up. It's March 21-22. Our games are at 9:30 am both days. If you need to send your daughter up by herself, let me know. If you can host another girl or two, let me know about that too. I don't have any information about what flights people are taking. Southwest and United both fly there direct. I know many of you will be coming back from Spring Break or perhaps flying straight there from some fabulous vacation. There are reserved hotel rooms, but we only have a couple of weeks to make that reservation. See the info below. 

Also, we have NPL games in Dallas on May 30-31. Stay tuned for more on that one. 

I have the confirmation of our group booking at the Embassy Suites Tulsa I-44 for March 20-22nd for the NPL weekend.

Hotel details:

Embassy Suites Tulsa I-44

3332 South 79th East Avenue

Tulsa, Oklahoma 74145

Telephone: 918-622-4000

I have 6 teams that said they wanted to be part of the group:

U13/U14/U15 boys

U13/U15/U17 girls

 

I have reserved 90 rooms for the group (about 15 per team), all of which are $124 a night, not including tax, (which is far lower than the standard rate). The rooms booked are:

2 Double Beds suites + sleeper sofa (sleeps 6) - 65 rooms

Accessible 2 Double Beds suites  + sleeper sofa (sleeps 6) - 5 rooms

King bed suites + sleeper sofa (sleeps 4) - 20 rooms

The room rate includes a complimentary breakfast buffet, complimentary high speed internet, evening reception with complimentary cocktails and free parking. There is also a free airport shuttle for those flying.

The accessible rooms are handicapped rooms. They were the only remaining doubles they had. Please note you have to click the special "show accessible rooms" click-box on the website to show those rooms. This will really only matter once all of the other doubles are reserved and if people really want / need a double room.

To book the rooms, you can call in to 1-800-EMBASSY and using the booking code HOU or by asking for the “Houston Express NPL” group rate. You can also book (much easier in my opinion) by going to our personalize booking page:

 http://embassysuites.hilton.com/en/es/groups/personalized/T/TULESES-HOU-20150320/index.jhtml?WT.mc_id=POG

 

All rooms must be booked before February 20th to secure the group rate. However, in order to guarantee the type of room you want, I'd recommend doing it as soon as possible. There is no cancellation fee as long as you cancel before 4pm the day before check-in.

I doubt we'll need more rooms than this, but I can add more rooms to the group if needed, but they will be more king rooms, as we took all of the doubles. If you think your group needs less rooms, or especially if your team ends up not going, let me know so that I can cancel part of the block.

 

Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks,

Gary Doughty

Disney Schedule

Here is a link to our Disney Schedule.

12/31/2014
Girls U15 Championship - Gray
Game	Time	Home Team		Away Team		Location
Bracket B
#091	2:30 PM	HOUSTON EXPRESS SC 00 NAVY (TXS)		SMITHTOWN KICKERS SC HOTSPUR (NYE)		NERP #01
1/1/2015
Girls U15 Championship - Gray
Game	Time	Home Team		Away Team		Location
Bracket B
#094	11:00 AM	WELLINGTON SC 99/00 WAVE WHITE (FL)		HOUSTON EXPRESS SC 00 NAVY (TXS)		NERP #03
1/2/2015
Girls U15 Championship - Gray
Game	Time	Home Team		Away Team		Location
Bracket B
#096	4:00 PM	HOOSIER FC 99/00 ELITE WOLVES (IN)		HOUSTON EXPRESS SC 00 NAVY (TXS)		EWWS #19

The NERP field is:

NORTHEAST REGIONAL PARK
50901 Hwy 27
Davenport, FL 33897
View on Google Maps 
View Venue Map

And the EWWS field is the close one at the ESPN facility:

ESPN Wide World Sports Complex
700 S. Victory Way
Kissimmee, FL 34747
View on Google Maps

• Complex Guide Map
• Complex Driving directions
• Hess® Fields

If we win or get second in our bracket, there will be a fourth game:

1/3/2015
Girls U15 Championship - Gray
Game	Time	Home Team		Away Team		Location
#550 Playoffs Final	10:45 AM	Bracket A #1		Bracket B #1		EWWS #21
#549 Playoffs Third Place	10:45 AM	Bracket A #2		Bracket B #2		ATRP #05

Team Marketing

Here is a link to the marketing brochure/CV. 

https://www.dropbox.com/l/E5dWzMOtM6CBKKB3F7K8pu

Please send me any edits. 

RC 

December 7 - Update on Promotion Games and Disney

Been a while since I've used the blog, but since Disney is approaching, I figured I need to get back in the habit.

First things first, this weekend we have our PLW promotion games against Albion. The games are at Burroughs #3 at noon on both days.  Unless you hear otherwise, let's wear NAVY on Saturday and WHITE on Sunday. I think you all know this by now, but these are really important. We have worked hard to get to this point, so let's make sure we help the girls with all the little things that can help their performance. The ones that have been playing school soccer are burning the candle at both ends, so they should probably take it easy on Friday and get a good night sleep at the very least.

I know Mark really wants to have the whole crew at training this week. Plan on the usual times unless you hear back from me. Roz is back in town this week too.

ODP. The deadline for ODP registration is 12/9. Remember, it's ok if you miss the tryouts on 12/13-14. Just let me know you've registered. Thank you if you already have.

Disney is around the corner. This time I'm a little more prepared for the check-in process, so no more last minute release forms. I promise. In fact, I'm going to try to check in online early. In order to do that, I need your help.

Download this form. If you can send it back to me in a PDF format, that would be great! Otherwise a scan will do, and I can convert it. Or if you can bring it to training, that works too. But, please no photos. I need these back by 12/12 in order to make the deadline for online check-in.

Lastly, you may remember the team roster/brochure thing I made. I'm hoping we will actually be putting it to use at Disney. So, if you have any updates, please let me know. I'll post the most recent version on the blog here in case you've forgotten. Can't do that til Monday though (it's at work).

Take a look at the SCL schedule and the NPL schedule. The links are on the right hand side of the home page of the blog. We've had a few games move around. I mentioned some of them in yesterday's email. Please check both schedules just so you're up to speed on all the upcoming games.
The SCL schedule doesn't reflect it yet, but I am almost certain the 10/4 game is moving to the evening of 10/2 at Dad's Club in Clear Lake.

This Saturday (9/27) we play Texas Rush at Burroughs #6 at 2:00 PM. We will wear WHITE. On Sunday, we have an NPL game against Eclipse. This game is in Alvin at the Ron Carter complex, field #2 at 11:00 am. Let's wear NAVY, but bring everything to both games.

1156 Fox Meadow Dr.
Alvin, TX 77511

Our game against Challenge got reschedule for October 26. That's the day after our game in San Antonio. It's at 2:00 though, so hopefully the girls can sleep in and fully recover.

Ok, Disney. Games start on December 31 and can go through January 3. I have a block of rooms at the same hotel. I'll be sending along an email with the link and the confirmation number to reserve your room(s) the same way we did last time. We have two weeks to make those reservations, then the rooms get released. Flights aren't cheap due to the timing around the holidays. I haven't seen a schedule yet, but be warned that the boys part of the tournament is December 26-30. So, if you want to add time to your trip, you'll have an easier time extending your hotel after the tournament. If you are planning on sending your daughter with another family or team, let me know how I can help. I think my whole family is coming, and we are happy to host any of your girls with us.

Tulsa. Take a look at that NPL schedule and you'll see the March 21-22 games in Tulsa. This is the second weekend of Spring Break for most of us. Flights will be expensive and will probably fill up early. Those of you traveling on spring break may want to consider flying into Tulsa from whatever awesome destination you were already at. I just wanted to give you a heads up as you may be making those plans.

SCL game and Disney in December

I think the girls are still buzzing from this weekend, and rightfully so. For those of you who couldn't make it, the girls really put on quite the performance. I continue to be impressed with their great athleticism and what impressive, intelligent, and fun young ladies they are. 

I had the unique pleasure of watching Mark coach and guide the girls first hand, and I can tell you we are lucky to have him. The girls know this too. 

As you know, our performance this last weekend earned us an invitation to the big event at Disney/ESPN WWOS. It is arguably the biggest college showcase event in the country. We have only a week to claim our spot and register for the tournament. From the conversations I have had about it with many of you, I'm assuming we want to go. The dates are December 31 - January 3. Same place. If you can't make it, or don't want to go, please let me know as soon as possible. If I don't hear from you, I'll assume you are on board. 

This weekend

We have our first SCL game this weekend. It's in Pflugerville (west side of Austin) at 1:00 PM against Lonestars Red South. Google maps says a little more than 2.5 hours from my house. If you're driving up that morning, plan accordingly and try to have fed your daughter before 11:00 on the way up, and at the fields around noon. Let's wear WHITE, but bring the whole kit. We are on field #5.

http://www.stxsoccer.org/docs/nemp.pdf

Northeast Metropolitan Park

2703 E. Pecan St.

Pflugerville, TX 78660

Last few things...if your daughter didn't get a medal this weekend, I have it and I will bring to practice today. Also, if you or your daughter saw the little flyer/brochure thing I put together and they want to make changes or edits, please email me or have them email me.