Housing News

I got word today that the housing deal in Ina is approved! George (the owner) has purchased two homes that will house 16 people. The rooms will be $225 for the first two months and then drop to $200 for the rest of the year. Rent includes water, gas, electricity, and garbage pickup. Beds, end tables, stove, refrigerator, and a washer and dryer are included. Cable and Internet access are not included. But the guys that stay in the houses can get together and purchase cable/internet as a group, if you want. The houses will be ready within two weeks. George is having new carpet installed in both houses. I'll let you know when you can come and check them out.

As of now, 16 of you have said that you are interested in the housing. So we are maxed out on housing. If you have changed your mind and are no longer interested let me know as soon as you can.

Schedule for fall 2009 is ready!

One of the hardest parts of this soccer job is scheduling games. I'm happy to report that the hard work is over and we have a final schedule. We will have to tweek it just a little because we don't have the start time on three of our games, but other than that it is ready to publish. It should be online in a few days, so go to rlc.edu and check out the soccer page for the schedule.

I'll go ahead and give you the dates and opponents that we play on a few of the games so you can start to plan your schedule:

August 28th Real Madrid

September 2nd Manchester United (we'll put Coach V on Ronaldo)

September 7th AC Milan

Looks like we have our work cut out for us,,,,;)

But seriously the REAL schedule will be online by the end of this week

We have a Keeper

Let me introduce the latest addition to our squad,,,Marcus Fernandes. He is a 6'1", 160 lb Keeper that lives in Nixa, Missouri. He is excited about coming to Rend Lake to pursue the new Athletic Trainer program at RLC, and to play some soccer this Fall. I'm looking forward to some good things from Marcus.

He is the 15th signee, that means I have one more to sign, besides Oscar and Antony from Kenya.

In a few weeks you'll be receiving news about our first team meeting. We're trying to work out a date in the first of June. That way you all can meet your team mates and we can have some fun around a cookout and a kick around.

Latest Recruiting News

I have verbal commitments from numbers 15 and 16 on our roster. That leaves two spots (numbers 17 and 18) on the scholarship roster for Oscar and Antony.

We have mailed the student visas to Oscar and Antony, they should have received them by now. Hopefully they will be able to get an appointment with the U.S. Embassy soon and then we'll have to wait and see if they can get permission to come over.

The two latest recruits are Marcus Fernandes and Neil Houlihan. Marcus is a Keeper from Nixa, Missouri, and Neil is a Forward from Springfield, Illinois. I'll be signing both of them sometime next week.

After all of our high school scholarship guys graduate, we'll have a team meeting to introduce everyone, have a little cookout, and a kick around, just to get to know each other. Also once we get our high school guys graduated we'll be able to get everyone together throughout the summer for some scrimmages.

I'll pass the word along just as soon as I hear from the guys from Kenya.

And yet a few more pics,,,,

I couldn't load all the pics in the first blog, so here are the rest. Josh Sears and Tyler Appleby are at the top and last but not least, Logan Gregg.

I couldn't help but throw in one of my grand daughter Lily Faith,,,:)

A few more pics of the guys

Nathan Wheeler is the sports information director at RLC. He sent the following pics so that I could post them on this blog.

From top to bottom are : Jared Butler, Micah Duncan and Joel Harrison, Cesar Garcia, Andy Jerome, and my fearless assistant Vimal Patel or as he is known by the guys,,,Coach V!

Scrimmage on Tuesdays

This Tuesday, March 10, we will have "open field" on the RLC soccer pitch starting at 5:00 p.m and going until dark. We will have "open field" every Tuesday (except March 17th that's Spring Break) unless you hear different from me. I've invited all the guys that I've signed and a few other guys in order to get 22 so we can go 11v11. Bring your shin guards, and let's enjoy some time outside with this warmer weather.

If any of you guys at RLC are free during the day on Monday, I could use some help lining the field. I should be on campus by 10:00 a.m.