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,