Coach P is a Grandfather!!!

Future player, Oliver Scott Partenheimer Chesla, at 14 hours

Believe it or not, there are some things more important than soccer, and this is one of them. I am proud to announce that my daughter, Kirsten Partenheimer, gave birth at 1:13 a.m. today (2:13 a.m. Eastern time) to a healthy baby boy in Stillwater, MN: Oliver Chesla, 6 pounds, 13 ounces, 20 inches.

Following report from Dad, Chris Chesla: "Kirsten was admitted to the Labor and Delivery section of the hospital at 7:30 am. Her water was broken and she was progressing nicely until about 2pm. From 2pm until 7pm, there was no significant progress made, so the doctors did everything they could to get the baby to come. At about 11pm, Kirsten started active labor. Kirsten and the hospital staff did everything they could to deliver the baby naturally, but after an hour of hard labor, it was determined that she needed a C-section.The C-section went great and after what seemed like only a few moments Kirsten and I could hear a crying baby. After an initial check of the baby's vitals, I got to go over and hold our little....boy!

"The C-section went great and after what seemed like only a few moments Kirsten and I could hear a crying baby. After an initial check of the baby's vitals, I got to go over and hold our little....boy!

"Kirsten is doing well and actually has dozed off while I have been typing this. She was basically in shock when she saw little Oliver, I believe at one point in the emergency room she actually exclaimed "that came out of me!?" We are both very tired and exhuasted but also in complete happiness that we have a new member to our family."

Photos and details to come, but I have no doubt Oliver will be able to kick with either foot.

Profs on a Roll

GLASSBORO, Sept. 26, 2009 – The P.A. can be heard as I walk from the parking lot towards the stadium entrance: “Starting for Rowan, Linda Sierra at fullback, Nina Fragoso at midfield, Ronnie Rhea at midfield, Evynn Wright at midfield.”

Add to those four Leah Carney, who’s just coming back from a nagging injury and gives a rugged presence in the back or up top, and there are five players from the Medford Strikers Xtreme playing significant roles for 23rd-ranked Rowan University.

Today was the first chance I had to see the Profs in action this year as they faced William Paterson at home. It was sunny but windy, not unlike last week up in Brunswick, ME.

There may have been a bit of a let-down after Wednesday’s huge 4-0 win over #6 ranked TCNJ (“a whuppin’” as Ronnie’s dad, George Rhea called it) and Rowan seemed a bit out of sync in the first half.

I could see early on that Christie Fink, a sophomore transfer from DePaul who played against the Xtreme for Hibernians, was a positive addition to the roster. Elsewhere around the field, no on was playing poorly, they just couldn’t sustain an attack. And Paterson almost took the lead with a low hard shot in the 21st minute, but Sierra was standing on the line and saved a goal.

Rowan had more chances by far in the first half, including a break-away by high scoring Jess Babice, whose point blank shot was blocked with 12:40 to play, but the half ended scoreless.

Whatever Coach Scott Leacott said at halftime must have worked and it took Babich all of 32 seconds to break down the Paterson defense and put Rowan on the board. In the next 15 minutes Fragoso was denied twice – once when a defender knocked one of her shots off the line and then by a diving save by the keeper. But Rhea scored on a rebound of a shot by Babich with 29:22 left and it was 2-0.

With two wins, including one over a top-10 team, look for the Profs to move up in this week’s rankings.

Nighttime in the High School Stadium

HADDONFIELD, Sept. 23, 2009 – The high school football team was still practicing when I arrived at the Haddonfield Memorial High School Stadium for the opening home night game of another season. It is my 16th year of announcing, writing programs, running the scoreboard, keeping time and generally trying to make everything run smoothly.

Ever since a graduating senior player told me I was a part of her high school experience, I’ve realized that these games are an event that the girls remember.

For me the home night games are like a big party in which I host a lot of friends. No matter how often I’ve done it, I’m always a little nervous because there are so many things that can go wrong – many of which the average fan wouldn’t notice. The worst was two years ago when I was about to announce the starting line-ups and suddenly realized that I had not gotten the starters from Haddonfield Coach Glenn Gess.  So I announced the starters from the previous game and hoped Glenn hadn’t changed his line-up.  He had, but I was close and no one seemed to mind - if they even noticed.

Sometimes I have fun with visiting players I’ve coached. In ’07 when we played Haddon Heights, their star player was Bridget Roney who happened to play for my Medford Strikers club team.  I usually announce the starters from goalie out to forward, so Bridget as a midfielder was the 6th player in line, but I skipped over her until the end.  After the game she told me, “I thought they forgot me but then I remembered who was announcing.”

Coach Gess doesn’t like playing in the stadium because the field is horrible – too small and ground up by football, the latter fact evidenced by the practice winding down as the soccer players arrived. But the trade-off for the bad field is the ambiance of playing in a stadium in front of a crowd under the lights, with the announcing and the music and the scoreboard on the wall of the high school.

There are more details in organizing a night game than most people realize: last night I got an e-mail identifying the U11 team that would be our ballgirls tonight – just in time for me to get it in the program and e-mail instructions to the coaches. There is the national anthem, pre-game and half-time music, ball-girls, line-ups, briefing the referees on our schedule and more mundane things like greeting the visiting team and making sure the stadium restrooms are open.

Today I left work in Center City at 4:45, stopped at Kinko’s on 16th Street to print the programs and headed home for a few minutes before showing up at the stadium at a little before 6:00. The West Deptford team was already there and I chatted with long-time coach, John Cobb, a Woodbury insurance agent. He tells me business is good. John was coaching back in ‘94 when my daughter, Kirsten, was playing and I tell him she is 30, married, and expecting her first baby the day after our next West Deptford game.

As the girls begin warm-ups Haddonfield athletic director Lefty Banos tells me about running last Sunday’s Philadelphia Distance Run, which my son Scott also did, and that he is training for the Philadelphia Marathon.

Haddonfield senior Kristen Ferguson, still on the D/L with a knee injury, gives me the CD to play when the girls come out on the field as a team for final warm-ups. She says she hopes to be able to play in the Moorestown game on October 2. Has to be tough missing half your senior year.

Referee Gary Rambo shows up. I coached Gary’s daughter Danielle, on SJ Select about 15 years back, and his niece, Amanda, on my ’81-’82 Strikers team.  Gary got into officiating late in life (as soccer goes) and became a very good official. Now he works games with Amanda.  Mike Marino, the other ref, is already here.

The Rolling Stones are playing on the PA as the players knock the ball around.  Our ball girls and their coach arrive and I have a minute to brief them.  The coach had received my instructions via e-mail the night before, expediting the process.  We’re still waiting for the concession stand to be set up.

The girls retreat to the gym for a last-minute talk with the coaches, after which they will make an entrance to the music on their own CD.  Assistant Coach Frank Ottinger gives me the signal and I start the CD.  Two minutes later Ott signals me to cut it.  The girls decided at the last minute they weren’t ready.  Another two minutes we try it again and they charge onto the field to applause of a few fans who are there early.

Glenn gives me his starting line-up.  Things are picking up and people are arriving.  Barbara Borden is setting up the concession stand in the first row of the stands at the 30-yard line.  Amy Leso, long-time West Deptford assistant coach, gives me their line-up.  I remind her it is our turn to win after they took both games last year.

I knew it was a big game when Marc Narducci from the Inquirer showed up.  He carries a Nikon camera with a large lens.  I asked him if the Newspaper Guild allowed writers to take photos and he said things are different now than a few years back when my late wife was an Inquirer reporter.

Bob Parsons, our Haddonfield varsity football announcer and an institution around town, is in the press box to videotape the game as he does most games.  Bob is trying to tell me a joke while I’m testing the sound levels and making sure the national anthem will play.  I didn’t hear a word of the joke, but knowing Bob it was probably pretty funny.

Seven minutes before seven and we’re behind schedule as the referees haven’t met with the captains yet.  It’s an awful humid night and there are swarms of mosquitoes around the lights over the press box window.

The captains finish with the refs and head back to the benches and it’s showtime: “Good evening ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the 2009 season at Haddonfield Memorial High School Stadium.”  The CD of the Bowdoin College a capella group, the Meddiebemsters, singing the Star Spangled Banner plays without a hitch and we go into the starting line-ups.

Play is underway and Haddonfield takes control early on. Seven minutes into the contest, Sarah Dudek uses her height to head in a throw from Steph Marcozzi and we’re up, 1-0. Steph’s parents, Dara and Tony, are celebrating their 20th anniversary by attending the game tonight.

I could not see who scored to announce the goal. I start calling around, but no one, including Sarah’s Dad, Jim, is answering their cellphones. I finally got a tentative ID from John Fell that it was Sarah, and caught Jim’s eye a moment later so I could put it on the air.

With four minutes until halftime Kathleen Jordan uses her speed and runs half the field down the left side only to be fouled in the box. Sweeper Jenna Gosnay nails the PK and it’s 2-0 at the half.

By now the crowd has grown to about 200 and the Rolling Stones are back on the PA. The ballgirls are introduced and wave to the fans – in four or five years many of them will be out on the field as high school players. At the near goal social studies teacher Jeff Boogaard is in the net for the celebrity goalie penalty kick shootout in which kids pay $1 to take a shot at a teacher in the goal.

The teams amble back to the benches and we’re ready to start the second half. I have to pay attention to the game because I’m running the clock, but there’s not a lot to announce in soccer. I don’t announce the subs simply because I can’t always see that far across the field to tell who’s in and who’s out. Unlike football, there’s not a play to announce every 10 seconds. I also remind myself that people came to watch a soccer game, not to hear me talk.

Midway through the second half Jordan makes a nice cross from the right and Brianna Mulava vollies it in for a 3-0 lead. Turns out we needed it because West Deptford scored two goals in the last seven minutes. The first was by #12, who was not on their roster, so she didn’t hear her name announced. With 2:22 left one of our defenders knocked it into our net and it was suddenly a very interesting game.

We hung on and the game ended 3-2. As Haddonfield parent John Marquess once said, it was more interesting than it had to be. A win is a win.

Marc is up in the pressbox finishing his story for tomorrow’s Inquirer. I turn off the scoreboard and Lefty shuts down the pressbox, leaving the door unlocked for Marc. I head down to the field, but on this night most people leave quickly.

Another night game in the books. We have three weeks to get ready for the next one.

Coach P with Wheaton Coach Luis Reis after Bowdoin match

BRUNSWICK, ME, Sept. 19, 2009 -- It was one of those picture perfect fall days in Maine - breezy, crystal clear sky - and everyone knew that winter is not too far off. But on this day all that mattered was that there was a good college soccer game going on. The Bowdoin women were playing nationally-ranked Wheaton of Massachusetts and Wheaton had their hands full.

Not long before the game started, the Bowdoin men knocked off cross-state conference rival, Bates, 4-0 on the adjacent field, and now the Polar Bear women were trying to make their own statement by knocking off a perennial NCAA team. And they almost did.

"We could've been down, 3-0 at the half," said Wheaton coach, Luis Reis, after a goal by Jessica Stuart in the 82nd minute enabled the Lyons to escape with a 1-0 victory and remain undefeated at 7-0-0.

Wheaton had the wind at its back the first half, but it was Bowdoin who seemed to have more chances - a shot wide right in the 8th minute, one over the crossbar in the 41st, another wide left in 43rd and yet another over the bar just 44 seconds before intermission. Yet it was 0-0 when the halftime whistle blew.

Bowdoin had applied the pressure in the last five minutes of the first half, but the intensity did not carry over to the second and the Lyons picked up the play. Midway through the half it took a diving save by the keeper to prevent Wheaton from taking the lead. But the Lyons kept coming and Stuart scored with 8:31 to play when she eluded a tackle and shot from 15 yards out.

It was an entertaining game, well-played by both sides. There are worse ways to spend a fall afternoon. (Raking leaves would be one of them.)

College Soccer in Maine

Two of my favorite activities are watching soccer (hence this blog) and being in Maine, so what could be better than soccer in Maine, especially in the fall? And no, there is no snow on the ground in Maine just yet.

In just a few hours Debbie and I will be flying to Portland and then tomorrow traveling to Brunswick to watch two of my favorite colleges, Wheaton and Bowdoin, play women's soccer for the first time since 1994. These are the two schools for which I have done some scouting over the years.

My daughter, Kirsten, graduated from Bowdoin in 2001. She did not play varsity soccer there, but during her time in Brunswick I became friendly with long-time coach, John Cullen, who has since retired. My ties to Wheaton date back to the fall of 2004 when a dear friend whom I often call an "honorary daughter," Lauren Konopka, began at Wheaton.

A former player for my friend Dave Rauer's Medford Strikers Freedom team, Lauren was the NEWMAC (New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference) rookie of the year in 2004 as the Lyons advanced to the national quarterfinals before losing to the "other" Wheaton from Illinois, 3-1. Lauren graduated in 2008 and at the beginning of this year was tied for fouth on the college's career list for games played with 96, fifth for points with 118 (42 goals and 34 assists), tied for fifth in career goals, and 6th in career assists. I had the opportunity to see Lauren play several times each season and became acquainted with Wheaton head coach, Luis Reis, and have kept in touch.

Bowdoin holds a 14-1 edge in the series, but the Wheaton Lyons come in undefeated at 6-0 and ranked 24th in the country among D-III schools. The Polar Bears, meanwhile, split their first two games, losing to nationally-ranked Amherst, 3-0, and shutting out Bates (my son Scott's alma mater), 4-0, Both were conference matches in NESCAC, New England Small College Athletic Conference.

People ask for whom I'll be rooting. Let's just say I'm packing a Wheaton hat and a Bowdoin hat. But I am looking forward to some good soccer from two colleges who give real meaning to the term "student athlete" (as do all the other colleges in both conferences) in all their sports. And the lobster should be pretty good, as well.

Words of Wisdom For Youth Soccer Parents

Looking back in the archives, I found a post more of more than three years ago on the NJ Youth Soccer Forum. I have printed it verbatim (with exception of cleaning up some typos, spelling and grammatical errors). I don't know who wrote it, but every parent of a high level club soccer player shoud read it.

14001. SOME ADVICE FOR PARENTS by dallas71, 1/26/06 13:14 ET

Having played the game, coached and having kids in college, I can tell you this:

1) Great talent is God given;

2) determination and hard work get results for everyone else;

3) Pick up games in any sport develop skill;

4) Paid coaches HAVE AGENDAS other than your kid’s best interest;

5) PDA’s, Matchfits, etc are a waste of money until age 16. Friendships last a lifetime, play local.

6) Don't expect quality coaching in HS

7) Colleges do NOT have a lot of money for MALE soccer players. The sport will help your kid get into a school, but unless you are of LOW income, don't expect sports to "pay the way"

8) GRADES, GRADES, GRADES. If you are willing to spend thousands on 6, 8,10years of soccer prep, tournaments, etc, why would you not spend that money nurturing the brain! Speed reading courses, tutors, whatever it takes to achieve success in the classroom FIRST.

9) College coaches are no better than the local paid coaches. They BS recruits, parents etc. Very few are sincere.

10) It’s a great GAME. Let your kids love it as just that.

I agree with everything the writer says, although #9 may be an over-generalization and is unfair to many fine college coaches out there. #8 is of interest as I have seen parents spend a ton of money beyond the usual cost of travel soccer for personal trainers, yet some of these same parents won't spend a few dollars for an SAT prep course or math tutoring. And pay particular attention to #4, parents!

High School Soccer is Here

The first ball kicked into space with no purpose and no teammate in sight reminded me that high school soccer season is upon us.

A number of years ago, Len Imielinski, a good friend of mine who coached quite successfully at upper levels of club ball for many years, was watching a high school game when someone commented that the field was in poor condition. "Doesn't matter," Len said. "The ball never touches the ground." It was a reference to the "boot it as far as you can" mentality of many high school players, i.e. the further you kick the ball the better player you are.

But as much as many of us who played and coached or just watched the club game criticize the high school game, in a town like Haddonfield it’s still fun. Many of the girls (and boys) play for club teams where the competition is intense and the quality of play – at least at the top levels – high and college scholarships can be at stake. But on the high school field they’re playing for their friends, their school and even the town.

I have been following the Haddonfield girls team (the Bulldogs, or "Dawgs") since the fall of 1993, when my daughter, Kirsten, was a freshman at Haddonfield High School. She made her varsity debut the following fall at a night game in our stadium, having been called up from JV earlier in the day. Along the way she earned two varsity letters (she was an exchange student in Switzerland her senior year) and two Colonial Conference championship plaques. And I’ve been going to the games ever since.

The names on the Haddonfield roster change from year to year, but the team keeps winning. Two years ago we won the State Cup and graduated six starters, including the goalie and the South Jersey Player of the Year. No problem. Last fall we came back, won South Jersey and came within a few inches of returning to the State Final.

So we lost only two starters from last year’s team, but have some injuries as we faced off with Kingsway at the Williamstown Tournament.

There are some things to work on. Very few short passes connected. A few girls carried the ball too long. Some midfielders did not support the forwards. And yet we were on the board in the 9th minute on a head ball off a cross from the left. Nine minutes later, a nice shot into the upper right corner made it 2-0. Some sloppy defense led to a Kingsway goal early in the 2nd half but a breakaway goal with 23 minutes left sealed the win. Not pretty, but a win is a win.

Today, with the Eagles and Phillies games on many spectators’ radios, the quality of play against 18th-ranked Williamstown was better, but there’s still a long way to go.

We knew it would be a tough day when one of our better players pulled a muscle in pre-game warm-ups and another had to come out in the opening minute. Too much individual play, not enough passing but still 0-0 at half. With 17:35 the Braves struck, scoring on a rebound and with 4:39 a misplayed ball gave them a seemingly insurmountable 2-0 edge.

But Haddonfield teams don’t quit. Less than a minute after yielding the second goal, the Bulldogs scored off a free kick from the right. And they came very close to tying it in the last minute – only to have a high shot bounce slightly wide.

High school season is here.

Twelve Years After the State Cup

More than 12 years after Joyelle Clark nailed a penalty kick to clinch the U15 State Cup, some of the '81-'82 Medford Strikers team gathered for a reunion at the home of Coach Joe Dadura and his wife, Bobbi on Sept. 5.



As is always the case with the passage of a decade, much has happened in the lives of the players and coaches from this very special team. College graduations, marriages, babies. An Olympic gold medal for Carli Lloyd. A doctorate in pharmacy for Lindsay Pote. Mr. D surviving a horrific accident and now coaching a very successful U13 team with the assistance of daughter Kacy Cross and former team member Maureen Carvelli. Coach P getting engaged a few years after the death of his wife of 36 years. Adrienne Dugandzik living in Belgium, Brynn Saunders in California, Lauren Calone in Singapore. Erica DeFruscia back from playing in Germany. Joyelle is a nurse in North Carolina.



Of the 10 women who attended Saturday, eight were with us when we won our first State Cup in dramatic fashion on the final kick of a shootout in the final at Ft. Dix back in May 1997. We won it again a year later at U16, but won only one game at regionals those two years. (Venice Williams' father, Bob, and I were reminiscing over sitting in the hotel bar at the Sheraton on Lake Erie in Dunkirk, NY during the U16 regionals and Bob telling the bartender that our whole group had come from South Jersey to vacation in this town in the middle of nowhere.) After U16 the team continued to get better and won the Dallas Cup, JAGS and other tournaments along the way, but no more State Cups.

Now of course it's exciting to see one of our own, Carli, having such success at the highest level. Never dreamed back then that a girl on our team would go on to play in the World Cup and score the goal against Brazil that won the Olympic gold medal for the United States.

As people began to leave Saturday, as is always the case at reunions, there were promises to keep in better touch (which many do through Facebook) and to not wait more than a decade for the next get-together. We'll see if that is the case, but for now it was good to catch up in person.