Love this guy!!!

Something for all @ the mall.

Criss and Drew

Looking cool.

Monday morning pic.

He looks great even when he is sick!

Drew man!

Hows this for a Wednesday look?

A Saturday VES visit. 9/8/2012

Saying goodbye. 

VES classroom.

WIld poster for the wall. 

This is Drews window and the blinds are falling apart. He was with out A.C this past week and the blinds felt the heat with him. 

Drew and Julia in frount of the Chapel at VES.

New Duke banner for Drews room.

Yard Sale Sat Sept 8, 2012

Soccer

Dear Parents,

     Yesterday the Bishops traveled south to face Carlisle at the Smith River Sports Complex outside of Martinsville.  They have a couple of turf fields down there, and we were lucky enough to play on one of them!  With a smooth roll of the ball and no potholes in sight, our players were amped to get out there and go.

     Much to my surprise, we scored in the 3^rd minute off of a corner kick which was played beautifully into the box and tapped home by one of our captains, Nick Peycke.  Nick is in his second year with the JV team and deserved this goal as he’s been setting a great example for all of our younger players. 

     Before we knew it, we had scored again.  Only this time it was a freshmen, Logan Slominski, who netted the ball to put us in front 2-0.  A ball had been played in from the left side of the field when a defender missed the clearance and, in what seemed like an eternity, the ball hovered above the ground begging for someone to put a head on it.  Well, Logan decided he was going to go and take care of that; and, with a powerful header over their best defender to the corner netting Logan single-headedly had put us in the driving seat only 15 minutes into the game.

     Carlisle settled down for the last 15 minutes of the first half and started figuring out their possession game.  Our defenders and midfielders were tested the rest of the half with some dangerous through balls that were either frantically cleared by Drew, Tom, Jacob, Riley or Zeil or scooped into the kung-fu like arms of our net-minder, Tyler Percario. 

     We made some adjustments at halftime, most notably putting Peter Harrington in on defense to deal with their best threat to our goal, number 10, and moving Logan over to the left wing and having Graham Allen take the reins up top as our lone striker.  Graham matched up well with their biggest and best defender, and ended up securing the victory for us with a follow up shot 6 minutes before the final whistle.  Carlisle, much like the pelting rain drops that unleashed themselves upon us in the second half, pressed forward and shelled us with shots.  Our defenders stood strong, cleared the ball and gave us chances on the counter-attack.  Despite a wonder-strike from their center back, number 16, we were able to prevail 3-1, and ride home wet, cold, tested, but, ultimately, victorious.

     My favorite moment of the day was when the skies opened up, and the other team’s bench ran for cover.  I looked back and saw all of our players, drenched and cold, chanting “BISHOPS” together.  A complete team victory. 

Thanks to Amy for providing the drinks and oranges.  They were a much needed bright spot amidst the chaos of a typical late summer squall.

Go Bishops!

Coach Bonner

Soccer info.

Dear Parents,

My name is Stuart Bonner and I, along with Coach Fernando Notario, want to welcome you to the VES JV Soccer family!  This is our second year coaching together and my third year, here, at VES with the JV team.  You can consider yourselves lucky to have sons that remembered to send me your email addresses so that I can communicate with you about game recaps, scheduling changes and other news pertaining to our team.  If you know of any parents whose emails I have not included on this, please feel free to add them or send their address to me so that I can update the list.  Also, if anyone wants to help provide snacks or drinks you can discuss that openly with this group.  Maysa Slominski (maysa.slominski@genworth.net) has graciously accepted the role of parent organizer for the season.  Thank you so much for volunteering your services!  To the parents of international students, we send our best from the U.S.!  

This past Friday we faced our first opponent in Holy Cross, a cross-town rival here in Lynchburg.  Last year, we defeated the Gaels 7-1 and were hoping to repeat such a stellar performance again this year.  Because we have a lot of new faces on the team, we weren't quite sure what might come of the fixture since we've barely had four days together as a full team to practice.  However, every player's hard work in practice this week paid off on Friday as we defeated the Gaels 3-0.  Their team is comprised of 6th, 7th and 8th graders, so we dominated possession for most of the game, as was expected.  We must say that as coaches, we were so happy to have everybody play in this game.  While we did play our starters for the entire first half, the second half we were able to get everybody out on the field for at least fifteen minutes of glory.  While, ideally, we would love for this to happen every game, we are playing to win, so we'll play the players that give us the best chance.  We constantly remind the team that performance and effort in practice determines who starts the next game; playing time is very much decided on the practice field.

Russ Thompson scored two goals and Graham Allen added another to complete the scoring for the Bishops.  Tyler Percario, in his second year with the JV team, recorded his first shutout of the season.  Winter and Criss played well in the midfield, distributing the ball to our wings and filling the gaps during the few counterattacks that occurred.  Logan, Jacob, Drew, Ziyao, and both Nicks played very well also.  We're glad that some of our injured players are getting healthier (Cole, Henry, Brian, William), and, hopefully, we'll have everyone ready to play for our next game on Tuesday, September 4th at Carlisle in Martinsville, VA.  Typically, they play their games at the Smith River Sports Complex if any of you can make the game.

One last note: Coach Notario and I are so pleased with the cohesiveness of our team already.  Everyone respects each other and enjoys the game.  That is our ultimate goal.  We'd love to win all of our matches, but if we can stick together as a team, learn how to play the game and improve individual skill, and have some fun we will have had a glorious season.

Thanks again and welcome!  Please let Coach Notario or me know if we can help in any way.

Our best,

The RAIN was unreal!

Road trip to VA to watch Drew and his VES soccer team play.

School days for Drew.