6-0 Loss to Middleville

Keep your collective heads up, ladies!! The season is young, and we can (and will) improve by leaps and bounds before this thing is over.

No shame in losing to a talented opponent…UNLESS WE DON'T SOMEHOW LEARN FROM IT!

Have a great, fun, safe Break, and please remember to stay/get fit and be ready to come back hitting the ground running for plenty of soccer ahead of us!

Pre-Spring Break week…and more!

Greetings, JV players and families!

Please check out the abbreviated schedule below as a tentative guide to this upcoming week:

**Monday: 3-430 PM practice (Parent/Teacher Conferences @5)
**Tuesday: 3-430 PM practice (Parent/Teacher Conferences @5)
**Wednesday: home game vs. Middleville (4 PM)…Rhi/Morgan = ball girls…Phebe = video…more details to come.
**Thursday/Friday: OFF…ENJOY THE BREAK AND STAY FIT! :)

On a side note, congrats to Maddie for her recent election (by her peers) as "alternate team captain" for this upcoming week!

4-0 Win vs. Coopersville

Job well done today, girls, in our first official game of the season! Certainly, we dealt with some adversity (weather, injuries, first game jitters, etc.) and came out on the right end of things. And as mentioned, we partially met two team goals today in doing so!!

Let's keep this positive momentum going into our next game on Wednesday at K. Hills.

Take care!

Upcoming week…and more!

Greetings, all! Hope the weekend's been great already.

A few things:

**Check out the newly updated "roster" and "team goals" information by scrolling down and to the left on this page. Regarding the three team goals that the girls decided on yesterday in my classroom, let's get the ball rolling starting on Monday…on the field and off!

**Reminder that I need $14 from all of you asap for the socks. Cash or checks made payable to "Hamilton High School  Attention: Girls Soccer". Speaking of apparel, please remember to order Hamilton stuff online (a previous email I sent all of you) if interested asap!

**Study, study, study your paperwork this weekend: set plays, player info, team info (philosophy, communication, etc.). DUE MONDAY! :)

**Congratulations to Teagan Knapp and Ana Lopez for being selected by their peers as permanent team captains this season! In addition, congratulations to Shania Kragt (shout-out to Morgan as well!) for being selected by her peers as the "alternate captain" for this upcoming week!

**Thank you ahead of time to Team Eustice and Team VanDenBerg for volunteering to host our other two team dinners coming up this season. Much appreciated! April 21 and May 19...

**Finally, check out the team schedule for this upcoming week below:

-MONDAY: 4 PM home game vs. Coopersville…wear warm-up top and jeans in school…all white uniforms for the game…meet outside dressed and ready no later than 3 PM…Syd, Maddie, Bailee = varsity game duties…warm-up cd????
-TUESDAY: 3-5 PM practice.
-WEDNESDAY: away game vs. Kenowa Hills…Katlyn = video…more details to come.
-THURSDAY: 3-5 PM practice.
-FRIDAY: 3-5 PM practice.

That's it for now, all! Let me know if you need anything at all.

Welcome, girls!

Ladies,

Again, welcome to the JV girls soccer team and Hamilton girls soccer program. I/We are really excited to work with you. Let's get this thing kicked off in a positive direction from the outset!

Here is the tentative schedule for next week:

**Monday: 3-5 PM (inside at the high school or outside)
**Tuesday: 3-5 PM (if outside)…5-7 PM in the HS (if inside)…PARENT MEETING TO FOLLOW      
                   FOLLOW IN EITHER CASE.
**Wednesday: 3-5 PM (if outside)…3-5 PM at the MS (if inside)…TEAM DINNER AT THE
                       ROBINSON HOUSEHOLD AT 5:30 P.M.
**Thursday: scheduled scrimmage outside at Zeeland East at 4 PM…7-9 PM practice at HS (if inside)
**Friday: 3-5 PM (inside at the HS or outside)

Take care and spread the word to your respective families!

End-of-Season Banquet

Please note the following:

What: JV/Varsity Soccer Dessert Banquet
When: Tuesday, June 3 at 6:30 PM.
Where: HS Cafeteria
Who: JV/Varsity players and respective families
What to bring: dessert to pass, personal beverages, place settings.

Hope to see you all there in order to celebrate a successful season!

9-0 Win vs. Comstock Park

Girls!

First, as mentioned after the game today, what a distance we've come as a team since April 2 at Middleville when we fell 6-0 in our first game of the season, huh?!! Man…seems like soooo long ago. You guys have improved by leaps and bounds throughout the course of the season, and WE CERTAINLY FINISHED STRONG!! Way to go. A coach couldn't be more proud.

More to come tomorrow at our team meeting right after school as well as at our program-wide banquet tentatively set for Tuesday, June 3 at 630 PM.

Keep the great work as overall good human beings, girls! :)

It was a pleasure…dot dot dot.

0-0 Tie @ Holland

Ladies!

Ready for our last JV practice of the season today?? :) And don't forget about our last team dinner at Kirby's afterward (@6)!

Regarding last night's tie @Holland , I don't think it was the worst result for us. As mentioned, Holland had a handful of dangerous chances that we managed to weather, so they deserve some credit as well. Plus, we've still got our team goal of finishing with an overall winning record going for us heading into our final game tomorrow!

Let's end this thing right, huh??!!

See you all soon!

Last Week of the Season!

Greetings, ladies! Hope all is well and that you're all enjoying the beautiful day??

Here goes with the schedule for our last week coming up here (grab the kleenex…haha):

**Monday: rematch game @ Holland (5 PM)…"dress up" in school…bus leaves at 415 PM…WIN...Katlyn = video…ride bus home with team.

**Tuesday: last practice of the season…3-5 PM…captains = lead…last team dinner at Kirby's (6 PM).

**Wednesday: last game of the season…home vs. Comstock Park (4 PM)…WIN…Grace/Kora = ball girls…Yaz = video…more details to come.

**Thursday: brief team meeting after school in my classroom…finished no later than 330 PM…please bring all clean uniform items if you can! And please let me know if you cannot make the meeting!

Note: Congrats again to Lauren for her team voting her as the last "alternate" captain of the season this past Friday!

Girls, let's end this season with a bang. We've got three team goals still in play here--one of which is ending the season with a winning record. At 6-6-2 currently, we've got to win out this week!

See you all soon!

0-0 Tie @ Unity

Hi, girls!

You all have MUCH to be proud of regarding your collective efforts last night at Unity. Overall, you made JV history! As mentioned, the result of the game was the first time ever that a Hamilton JV team has ended a contest with Unity with something other than a loss. And as I mentioned last night, the score was a WELL-EARNED, DESERVING one: not the result of some fluky, pack-it-in, survival-mode, sloppy soccer mentality that some teams play against talented opponents. Your coach is very proud of you!

Now, with two games left, we've still got more work to do, right???

See you all for practice today. Bundle up!

4-2 Win vs. Zeeland West

Girls,

As a coach, it's certainly a joy to watch you all continue to improve as a team and "finish strong" (as I mentioned after the game today). Today, you certainly won the battle on the field vs. Zeeland West to even our overall season record at 6-6-1.

NOW the challenge is winning the battle IN OUR OWN COLLECTIVE HEADS as we prepare for Unity on Wednesday at their place. As I mentioned today, if we don't even BELIEVE we can beat those girls, the game is already lost! You all know by now that soccer is a crazy (beautiful) sport in that any given team can win on any given day.

Let's make it happen on Wednesday…after putting in the necessary work in practice tomorrow!

See you all soon.

2-1 Win @ Wayland…and more!

Hey, girls!

Hope you're enjoying the weekend, the nice weather, all of it.

Great job last night at Wayland. As I mentioned to you after the game, that was (in my opinion) easily one of the best games of the season for us simply regarding POSSESSION. You guys were dominant at times. As a coach, it was great to see. Keep that up here with four games left! Speaking of that, remember that one our new team goals for the remaining couple of weeks on the season is to finish with an overall winning record! At 5-6-1 currently, we can do it!!! Keep visualizing success…and making it happen on the field.

Take a look at this coming week's schedule:

**Monday: home game vs. Z.West (4 PM)…dressed and ready on the field by 3 PM…Yaz and Helana = ball girls…Lauren = video.

**Tuesday: practice 3-5 PM.

**Wednesday: game @ Unity (5 PM)…bus leaves at 4 PM…Ayla = video.

**Thursday: practice 3-5 PM.

**Friday: practice 3-5 PM.

Note: Congrats again to Ayla for her teammates voting her as the next alternate captain for this coming week!

Take care and see you soon, all!

2-0 Loss @ H.C.

Hey, girls!

I hope we're all recovered --mentally and physically--from last night's emotional contest at H.C.? As I mentioned at the conclusion of the game, they deserved to win that game. There's no shame in that. They were better than us on THAT day. It's that simple.

We still have much to play for here in the next two weeks: a couple of team goals to fulfill, five games, one last team dinner, etc.

Let's keep improving! See you all for practice today at 3 PM.

2-0 Win vs. Byron Center

And the beat goes on…….

Well done today, ladies. I'm proud of you all for contributing to a team goal partially met in our rematch win vs. a conference opponent. And now i'm looking even more forward to this Wednesday at Holland Christian when we have the chance to continue toward the same team goal but also do what no other JV soccer team has done before at Hamilton: beat Holland Christian.

If today didn't give you even more confidence (on top of our last strong effort vs. H.C. on our field a few weeks back), I don't know what will!

Let's get better in practice tomorrow and then BEAT H.C.!

1-0 Win @ Zeeland East…and more!

Girls! Hope you're enjoying the weekend…and Tulip Time?! :)

Regarding last night's game, you ladies should be very proud of your second half effort especially--all around. That was a hard-fought win…a well-deserved win in my estimation. Way to go. And now we've got an important rematch vs. B.Center at home on Monday. If you recall, they beat us 2-0 at their place not so long ago. One of our team goals is to beat every conference opponent at least once, and here's our last chance vs. that team on Monday! Let's meet that challenge!

See below regarding more details for this upcoming week:

**Monday: game vs. Byron Center (4 PM)…dressed and ready outside by 3 PM…Morgan/Kirby = ball girls…Kora = video.

**Tuesday: practice 3-5 PM…team dinner #2 at Katlyn's @ 6 pm.

**Wednesday: game @ H.C. (530 PM)…bus leaves at 430 PM…Maryn = video...more details to come.

**Thursday: practice 3-5 PM.

**Friday: game @Wayland (5 PM)…bus leaves at 330 PM…Mikayla = video…more details to come.

Note: with only three weeks left in the season, our team theme for the remaining weeks will simply result in girls nominating fellow teammates for ANY positive contribution to the team during that respective week. Let's all strive for this!

Take care, all, and let's keep improving and moving forward!

0-0 Tie vs. Holland

Girls, 

I was proud of your overall effort today in a game we mostly dominated--possession and offensive chance-wise. It was certainly evident until the final horn that you ladies were fighting and desperately trying to punch one of those balls in the back of the net. I enjoyed watching that effort. Let's all be honest with ourselves though: that's a game we simply need to win. Remember, "good" teams take care of business against the lesser teams every time, and we didn't fully get the job done today. Let's file today in our collective memory banks, and revive the memories the next time we play Holland at their place, right?! 

I look forward to working with you in practice tomorrow…especially offensively! 

3-0 Loss to Unity

Hi, girls.

Well, in my opinion today was another situation (like our last home game vs. H.C.) where we played a traditionally tough program tooth and nail for the most part and yet couldn't come up with the "extra stuff" to prevail. Since we play both aforementioned teams from above yet again at their respective places in the near future, what can we ALL do to finally take that next step as a team/program??!! I know we have it in us…(dot dot dot)….Varsity as well. And you saw how they took on H.C. the first time!

Hang in there, and let's get better tomorrow in practice!

2-0 Win @ Hopkins…and more!

Hi, girls!

Another job well done yesterday vs. an opponent that we needed to take care of, all things considering. A good team (which I think we are) takes care of business vs. a lesser opponent (no let-downs) and once in a while shocks a team that, on paper, is "better" (i.e. Unity on Monday!).

I look forward to seeing how we handle a bit of success as of late! And remember, POSSESS POSSESS POSSESS!

Take a look at the weekly schedule below:

**Monday: game vs. Unity (4 pm)…dressed and ready on the game field by 3 pm…Lauren, Ayla, and Taylor be ready for Varsity game duties.

**Tuesday: practice 3-5 pm.

**Wednesday: game vs. Holland (4 pm)…dressed and ready on the game field by 3 pm…Katlyn, Brook, and Grace be ready for Varsity game duties.

**Thursday: practice 3-5 pm.

**Friday: game @ Z.East (5 pm)…bus leaves at 4 pm…you may ride home with parents on this night.

Note: As mentioned above, our team theme for this coming week is POSSESSION. Simply put, the team that owns the majority of the possession in a given game usually wins the contest…usually. :)  Regarding our past team theme of MENTAL TOUGHNESS, congrats again to Taylor for her winning the captain award!

Take care, all! Let's keep this thing rolling in the right direction!

2-0 Win @ Z.West

Ladies,

Congrats again on a well-earned first win of the season last night vs. a conference foe! Well done. Now that we've tasted a bit of success on the scoreboard, it's time to get a bit greedy and keep this ball rolling--continuing today in a Hopkins match!

Remember though, we're going to have to continue to focus on communication, physical toughness, mental toughness…and our current new theme of POSSESSION. Simply put, the team that owns the majority of the possession during a given match usually wins the game. We CAN do it…and we can do it much better than we even did it yesterday!

Looking forward to seeing you again. Bus leaves at 315 PM.