Saturday, 30 April, 2016 (2380 reads)

MAY 2016

DYNAMOS TRYOUTS
What: Tryouts for Dynamos Select Teams for the 2016-2017 seasons
Who: Boys and girls 10-18 years old
Where: Dyess Park
When: See age group dates below
How Long: Each tryout one hour and a half each day for two days
Required: Register, signify goalkeeper, at least one-half prior to tryout
Gear: T-shirt and shorts, comfortable soccer shoes. Bring water.
Result: Depending on numbers, one, two, or more teams selected per age group
For Information: email dynamo14@dynamossoccer.com
The complete schedule of 2016 tryouts:
MAY DATES
U-11 boys and girls (birth year 2006)): Mon., May 16, and Wed., May 18, 5:30pm-7pm
U-12 boys and girls (birth year 2005): Mon., May 16, and Wed., May 16, 7pm-8:30pm
U-13 boys and girls (birth year 2004): Tues., May 17 and Thurs., May 19, 5:30pm-7pm
JUNE DATES
U-14 boys and girls (birth year 2003: Mon., June 6 and Wed., June 8, 5:30pm-7pm
U-15 boys and girls (birth year 2002): Mon., June 6 and Wed., June 8, 7pm-8:30pm
U16-U17 boys and girls (birth years 2001-2000): Tues., June 7, and Thurs., June 9, 5:30pm-7pm
U18-U19 boys and girls (birth years 1999-1998): Tues., June 7 and Thurs., June 9, 7pm-8:30pm
Helpful hints for tryouts:
DO
. . .Report one-half hour early on the first day to sign up and receive a number.
. . .Wear t-shirts and shorts, Dynamos team gear is okay
. . .Bring your own water
. . .Bring gloves, wear shin guards and comfortable shoes
. . .Pay attention to every word trainers say
. . .Jog when a trainer calls a group together
DON’T
. . .Show up late
. . .Show frustration, or stop playing, when making a mistake
. . .Kick a ball, bounce a ball, throw a ball, or talk, after a trainer calls group together
. . .Look at Mom or Dad to see if you are doing all right

SUMMER KEEPER CAMP
The Keeper Club’s 2016 Summer Goalkeeper Camp will be held August 17-19 at Dyess Park. The Keeper Camp includes three days of concentrated training and fun that boys and girls 9-18 years of age won't want to miss. For the first time in many years, the Goalkeeper Camp will not be held the same week as the Dynamos Select Camp and also will operate Wednesday thru Friday, rather than Thursday thru Saturday, as in the past. Each day's activities will begin at 5pm and end at 8 o'clock. The traditional Pizza and PowerAde treat will be held at the end of the Friday camp. Camp fee is $150, with Keeper Club members receiving a $50 discount. You can register at www.dynamossocceer.com by clicking on "Summer Camps," then "Registration," If you're a keeper, or aspire to be one, this camp is where you need to be. It is intense, sweat-producing, guaranteed to send you home a better keeper than when you arrived. Camp director Jim Walker will announce camp staff later this month.

LOOKING BACK
1999—Keeper Club alumnus Mya Morrison, a freshman, landed the starting goalkeeper’s job at Bryan College in Tennessee and recorded 24 saves in a recent 1-0 loss to nationally-ranked Brevard College. (Editor’s note: Mya now is a captain in the U. S. Army)
2010--Grant Steppe shut out Eclipse Red in the first half with several fine saves and efficient distribution, then scored a goal the second half to spark the U11 Dynamos to a 1-0 victory April 24. (Editor’s note: Grant now is a defensive specialist at Cy-Fair HS and has attended the Summer Fitness Program at Dyess Park for the past four years).

Food for Thought
LEARNING TO SHARE THE LOAD
The question posed to a number of Keeper Club alumni ten years ago was: “What has been your greatest challenge as a goalkeeper?” The first response was delivered by Brandon Renken, an original member of the Keeper Club who starred at Cy-Creek HS and went on to graduate from Harvard University, where he played as a varsity member for four years. After graduation from the University of Texas Law School, he has become a respected Houston attorney who returns each year as a guest instructor at the Summer Goalkeeper Camp. Here is his in-depth piece, published in Keeper! in 2006:
By Brandon Renken
My greatest challenge as a goalkeeper has been, to a large extent, the same as one of my greatest challenges in life. As a young goalkeeper, I played from a very simple perspective, based on a very simple promise. Every time I laced up my cleats, pulled on my gloves, and stepped on the field, I made a promise to my team that if they got me one goal, we would win. It may not seem like my promise was a bad thing. It seems noble, admirable, a fair deal between my teammates and me based on a uniform desire to win and an uncanny clarity of vision. It simplified the game into two distinct goals: 1) the goal for everyone else, score goals and 2) the goal for me, prevent goals. At its most essential, I suppose, soccer can be broken up into a game consisting of those two distinct aims. The dichotomy is not necessarily an oversimplification because soccer is in some ways a simple game. Nonetheless, it misses the point. I told myself that what I was trying to do was shoulder the blame, take the responsibility, make the game fun for everyone else because if we won, it was because they scored, and if we lost it was because I failed to hold up my end of the bargain. I told myself that I was removing the fear of mistakes and the nervousness and the second-guessing of everyone on the field with my confidence that if they could work together and accomplish their sometimes difficult task, I could work alone to accomplish mine. For a long time, I thought my perspective was a healthy one. That it isolated me in such a way that I was insulated from anything else that happened on the field or was said by someone off of it or transpired between teammates at practice or between games. Thee things were a part of my life, but they didn't affect my game. In reality, however, my perspective reflected less of a personal fortitude than it did a failure to really trust my best friends, to put the game in their hands, to let them carry me with their confidence rather than try to carry them with mine. I thought I worked harder and cared more and wanted it worse than everyone else. Again, these characteristics are not necessarily negative at first glance, but they undoubtedly place a high price on failure. And they make it impossible for you to depend on or have faith in anyone else. The perspective leaves you alone and, ultimately, defeated, because .everyone gets scored on, everyone gets a bad grade, everyone comes in second place, and when you have no one to pick you up it makes the game, and life, impossibly difficult. It turns out that the greatest change in being a goalkeeper isn't brought on by the difficulty of dealing with being alone, in the eighteen, but rather the difficulty of letting your teammates in, letting them shoulder their loads. Even leaning on them to take part of yours without the slightest hint of doubt or fear that they'll let you down. As a club player, I spent 10-15 years playing with the people who remain some of my best friends today. I have no doubt that the people I played with in college would be at my side in times of joy or crisis with little more than a phone call or an email. When we won, we won together, but just as importantly, we lost together, too. Which is good, because I don't think I would have made it as far as I have by always losing alone.

KeeperTalk
Keeper Club says “Yes!” to two Noahs: welcome to new members Noah Key, who plays for the Cy-Fair Blue Lightning, and Noah Bar. . .Former Keeper Club member and contributing trainer Michael Bouchahine was lauded as a “Culture Influencer” in the recent issue of The Pillars, Houston Baptist University’s news magazine. HBU alumnus Michael, along with Dr. Valerie Bussell, participated in a presentation “Athletic Identity in University Athletes: Difference for Gender and Type of Sport” at the sixth annual International Conference of Sport and Society” at the University of Toronto in Canada. . .Former Dynamos and Keeper Club member Daniel Adams, reports that four-year-old (almost five) son Liam has started soccer and that he himself is the coach for the Sharks and “it went a lot better than I expected! Looking forward to a great season!”. . .Seen on a goalkeeper’s t-shirt: “My only goal in life is to deny yours. . . On April 24, Jim and Shirley Walker celebrated 55 years of marriage by, uh, forgetting it!! Daughter Kelly Dial reminded them on Facebook. They looked at each other and said: “Oh yeah, that’s right, it’s today!” Daughter Kelly then posted: “and they said it wouldn’t last!”. . .
. .Quiz question for April was: when a kitten looks into a mirror, what should be looking back? Answer: a lion! Winner of the drawing is Alli Thompson! The new contest question: What is the Keeper newsletter’s Tip of the Month for May? Send your five-word answer in an email to jwalker@dynamossoccer.com for entry in the May drawing for a $25 gift card.

QUOTABLE
"The goalkeeper is the lone eagle, the player of mystery, the last defender. Less the keeper of a goal than the keeper of a dream."—Russian Novelist Vladimir Nabokov, himself an ardent goalkeeper.

TIP OF THE MONTH
Do the simple things right.

KEEPING SECRETS
It amazes me how few of our goalkeepers misuse the call of “KEEPER!” It's either too soft or too late. Keeper calls are to alert your defenders that you are coming out of the goal area to collect the ball, so they can leave an open path for the keeper to get to the ball. I like giving the keeper call early and intimidating so the opponents know that pain is about to arrive.—Roli the Goalie