October 2016

TRAINING SCHEDULE
October calendar for goalkeeper training at Dyess Park:
3—Junior Keepers 5:30pm
4—Intermediates, 6:30pm
6—Seniors, 6:30pm
10—Junior Keepers, 5:30pm
11—Intermediates, 6:30pm
13—Seniors, 6:30pm
17—Junior Keepers, 5:30pm
18—Intermediates, 6:30pm
20—Intermediates, 6:30pm
24—Junior Keepers, 5:30pm
25—Intermediates, 6:30pm
27—Seniors, 6:30pm
31—Junior Keepers, 5:30pm
About the Keeper Club
Junior Keepers (Mondays, 5:30pm)—Beginners, 10 and under boys and girls
Intermediates (Tuesdays, 6:30pm)—U11, U12, U13 competitive boys and girls
Seniors (Thursdays, 6:30pm)—U14 and older competitive boys and girls
Goalkeeper training is open to boys and girls nine years old thru 18 with weekly sessions throughout the Fall season until December 15. Jim Walker conducts training on Mondays, Eddie Bloise on Tuesdays and Roland Sikinger on Thursdays. Fee for regular training: Junior Keepers, $50; for others, $100 for the fall season, ending the week of Dec. 15; $200 if not playing for the Cy-Fair Youth Soccer Club or the Dynamos. The fall package includes the annual Christmas party, tentatively scheduled for Dec. 15. To join, please send goalkeeper’s name, birthdate, email address and phone number, along with check payable to "Keeper Club" and mail to Dynamos Keeper Club, attn: DeNiece Herrod, 5827 Pinellas PK, Spring TX 77379. For more information, email jwalker@dynamossoccer.com or phone 281-217-1612.

BYOK: FREE WORKSHOP TO HELP YOUR KEEPER
Here’s a free workshop for goalkeepers and their coaches and/or parents. Join Keeper Club director Jim Walker at the Bring Your Own Keeper (BYOK) workshop on Sun., Oct. 16 at Dyess Park (3:30-5pm). Coaches and parents are encouraged to bring one or more goalkeepers of any age and join in exercises that will assist in game preparation and help to improve skills. Parents and coaches will be asked to participate as servers. It's fun, and free! Registration is requested so sign up by emailing JWalker@dynamossoccer.com. Please give the keeper's name and age, and name of parent or coach accompanying him or her.

DYNAMOS GOLF TOURNAMENT
The Dynamos’ most popular and most important fundraiser, the Marty Espinoza Memorial Golf Tournament will be held Fri., Oct. 28 at Longwood Golf Club, 13300 Longwood Trace in Cypress. Andrew Bridges again will be chairman of the event, which draws many golfers and non-golfers for an afternoon featuring golf, dinner, and silent action that annually produces great camaraderie among the Dynamos family. “We will need many, many volunteers from each team to assist in this event,” said Director of Training Olivier Finidori. “We need all of you to start spreading the word and help us make this fundraiser another huge success.” Teams will be responsible for entering one foursome for the tournament, also providing door prizes, and other items. To assist with the tournament, please email abridges@dynamossoccer.com and let Andrew know you will help.

For Halloween
KEEPER NIGHTMARES
This story was first published in Keeper! in 2010, but the editor thought current Keeper Club members could relate, so here ‘tis again! Read through to the end where you will be
At Keeper Club, we call getting beat at the near post reason for a nightmare. But this is the month of Halloween, so keepers have been known to gather round with a jar of Powerade and recall other chilling experiences they’ve had. Sure, they share successes, too, but also delight in exchanging tales of odd adventures in goal, even if sometimes embarrassing. One young keeper, who shall remain nameless, tells about preparing for a match and his jersey was too small. He became so worked up trying to pull the jersey on that his coach decided he was in no frame of mind to play and benched him. Then there’s the creepy story of the English pro match when early in the game a heavy fog reduced visibility to half the pitch and the referee abandoned the game. After the players had been in the changing rooms for a few minutes, a teammate noticed the keeper was absent. They found him, still on the field faithfully guarding his goal. Apparently, his team had been playing particularly well and he thought they had managed to keep play at the other end of the fog-enshrouded field. Keeper Club alumnus Erin Poyner once executed a flying dive backwards into the goal, ripped down the net and was all tangled up in the web of fallen cords when she realized the ball went over the crossbar on its own. “That was embarrassing,” exclaimed Erin. Jacob Fowler, now active in the U. S. Army, remembers an incident when a shot hit the post and rebounded off the back of his head into the goal. He’s not alone among keepers having that occur. A few years back, Heather Koudelka, now a doctor of physical therapy and regular instructor at our summer keeper camp, had the spooky experience of being scored on by a red oak. It was during tournament in Dallas, she explained, “and there was a tree near the back of the goal with part of a branch hanging above the crossbar. A little bit of it was on the field side. I was back to handle a high corner kick at the rear post when the ball struck the branch and dropped into the goal in front of me.” Have you had similar experiences? Or, how about things you consider lucky that have happened to you as a keeper. That will be your assignment this month. For the November issue, send in a Thanksgiving story of something that happened to you unexpectedly that had a good outcome. Entrants will be entered in a drawing for a new soccer ball. Email your entry to jwalker@dynamossoccer.com on or before October 28!
Attn: Junior Keepers—Training this year lands on Oct. 31--Halloween. There will be a prize for the best mask or costume of those attending that day. But remember we have to train, so don’t wear anything preventing you from running, hopping, shuffling, leaping, or diving!

KeeperTalk
Thanks to the combined efforts of Joe B. Napier, Dyanna McCoy, Olivier Finidori, Marcus Hajdik and others, the Dynamos have added portable floodlights at Dyess Park, lighting up fields 3, 4, 14 and 15 for training. . .Daylight Saving Time ends Sun., Nov. 6. . .Keeper Club veteran Isobel Herrod was off to a good start this season as the keeper for U16 Dynamos, now is sidelined 10-12 weeks with a high ankle sprain suffered the last weekend of September. Typical Isobel, though, she began rehab by reporting for Thursday’s training session wearing a boot, and according to trainer Roland Sikinger “doing what she could do.”. . .Lots of boys and girls turning out for the Intermediate and Senior training groups with Eddie Bloise and Roli the Goalie and hopefully the upcoming Bring Your Own Keeper Workshop will increase numbers of Junior Keepers, as it usually does. The free BYOK clinic is Sun., Oct. 16, 3:30-5pm, on a field near the Dyess Park gazebo. Keeper Club members are welcome to attend and help out where needed. . .Tally Hall, the former Houston Dynamo goalkeeper, has a new career—he has joined the Orlando (Flo.) Police Department. The last 23 games of Tally’s 168-game Major League Soccer career came in 2015 with Orlando City, where fans dubbed him “Tally Wall.” He told the Orlando Sentinel : “I am excited about having a positive impact on the city and community that my family and I have grown to love.”. . .Answer to the Keeper! quiz question for September was “Briddy,” the nickname of Alejandra “Briddy” Velasco-Martin, former goalkeeper for the Colombian Women’s National Team and Boston Breakers of the Women’s Professional League, Congratulations to Alli Thompson, drawing winner of a $25 gift certificate. Registrants for the October quiz simply need to answer (available elsewhere in this newsletter) this question: at what golf course is this year’s Marty Espinoza Memorial Golf Tournament being held? Send your answer to jwalker@dynamossoccer.com for entry in the October drawing for a $25 gift card. . .If you have a news items, photos, anecdotes, or tips on goalkeeping, please send to jwalker@dynamossoccer.com

Keeper Club's Isobel Herrod getting low to shut down the near post

KEEPER LOG
Goalkeepers who attended Keeper Club training during September:
5—Labor Day, no training
6—Samantha Nichols, Samantha Yeager, Claire Juenke, Montse Mendez, Amber Zlatich, Zac Cannon, Andy Garcia, David Graham, Robbie Steadman, John Steadman, Ben Jones, Daniel Bridges, Noah Bar
8—Emma Sterne, Audrey Faucher, Elizabeth Corken, Ethan Rimbey, Casey Jones, Ethan Urrutia, Payton Salinas, Kaeden Johnson
12—Johan Martinez, Ethan Baylis, Nigel Smith, Victoria Finidori, Sophia Wilkinson
13—Lightning Hopkins, Emma Flood
15—Kaeden Johnson,Casey Jones, Payton Salinas, Ethan Urrutia, Audrey Faucher, Emma Sterne, Ethan Rimbey
19—No report
20—Muddy Fields
22—Ethan Urrutia, Piper Slone, Elizabeth Corken, Victoria Martin, Audrey Faucher, Emma Sterne, Payton Salinas, Kaeden Johnson, Maddie Saucedo
26—Trainer no show. Apologies all around
27—Daniel Bridges, Samantha Yeager, Samantha Nichols, Claire Juenke, Montse Mendez, Alli Thompson, Amber Zlatich, John Steadman, Robbie Steadman, Ben Jones, Alex Wangen, Andy Garcia, Holden Calder, Caitlyn Burrell, Andrew Nelson
29--Ethan Urrutia, Casey Jones, Kaeden Johnson, Emma Sterne, Audrey Faucher, Payton Salinas, Elizabeth Corkin, Isobel Herrod

QUOTABLE
“When you train, work hard on everything you do. Don’t let yourself get lackadaisical.”--Brandon Renken, Keeper! Club alumnus and camp instructor.

TIP OF THE MONTH
We worked on high balls, and cross-taking. Since keepers have to judge the flight of the ball to determine where it's going to land, they have to leave late to collect the ball. Since they are leaving late, they have to arrive fast and furious to the ball. Keeper call must be early to alert defenders to cover the goal that keeper is leaving vacant, and to provide a channel for the keeper to get to the ball. Collect the ball at its highest point, boxing it out of danger if its uncatchable. I ask our keepers to go back to their teams and instruct defenders on two calls that the keeper should make when taking a cross. KEEPER!!!! when coming off your line to collect the ball, alerting defenders to cover the goal, and to allow a channel for the keeper to get to the ball. Or, AWAY!!!!!, alerting the defenders that you are staying home, and that the defenders need to clear the ball AWAY from danger.—Roland Sikinger, Dynamos trainer and former U. S. Olympic and professional goalkeeper

KEEPING SECRETS
As a keeper, you use your defenders much like pawns. When in the correct position, they are a tremendous asset to "shortening the size of the goal." Ideally, the defender puts him/herself in a position between the post and the shooter when they are too far away to close them down. This allows the keeper to play the space between the far post and the defender as the width of the goal, saving a precious three to four feet of the goal mouth. However, if the defender positions himself too far inside the goal (not covering one post or the other), this forces the keeper to choose one side or the other of the defender to "cheat.” If the forward shoots the ball at the other side of the defender, the results are often a goal as the ground is too much to make up in time to stop the shot. Having a defender in this arrangement is essentially like having the keeper covering the whole goal but being out of position by two steps to one side giving a good forward essentially an open goal to shoot at. You can't change this in a game, but you can work with the defenders in practice to properly position themselves through vocal commands.—David Benner, veteran professional goalkeeper who has worked with Dynamos keepers at Keeper Club camps and clinics.