Keeper July 2013

www.PortageSoccer.com

Welcoming Remarks 1

2013-2014 Parent Reps. 1

Norm Jansen Recognized 2

Record Breaking Tryouts 2

PSC Player Development

Philosophy 3

A “Classic Finish” 3

Lindsay Tarpley Returns 4

Uniform & Apparel 4

BJ Snow—Wall of Fame 5

Field Maintenance Plan 6

PSC Budget for 2013-2014 6

Tournament Logo Contest 7

Coaching Controversy 7

Volunteer Requirements 8

PSC History 8

PSC Board 8

Inside this issue: Welcoming Remarks by PSC President David Rice

July 2013

2013-2014 PSC’s Parent Representatives

The Keeper

Welcome to all of our returning coaches, players and parents as

we begin a new season. A special welcome to our new players,

parents and coaches as you join the Portage Soccer Club. With

30+ teams and nearly 400 players we are one of the largest soccer

clubs in the West Michigan Youth Soccer Association. It is the

largest non-profit soccer club in southwest Michigan.

Our mission is to promote the sport of soccer in our community

through the development of our youth soccer players. Our play-

ers comprise some of the best talent in our area; many of our players participate on

our high school teams. Former players have and are also making their mark in

many professional and college programs!

The operation and smooth running of the club requires the efforts and contributions

of many dedicated volunteers. One thing which separates us from other clubs is our

parent representatives. These volunteers are your main contacts for any comments,

concerns or questions about the operation of our club. Each representative will be

responsible for up to 10 teams. Don’t be surprised if you receive a call or email from

a representative asking your thoughts. and opinions. Of course, you are always wel-

come to contact any Board member or attend our monthly Board meetings.

Portage SC 97 White (boys)

Portage SC 98 Green (boys)

Portage SC 99 (girls)

Portage SC 00 (boys)

Portage SC 01 Green (girls)

Portage SC 01 White (girls)



Portage SC 02 Yellow (girls)

Portage SC 02 Black (girls)





Portage SC 99 (boys)

















Portage SC Academy

Chad Earles Janet Ingersoll Lisa Hall

Board Member and referee since 1998.

Jansen joined the PSC board back in 2002 and has held

such positions as VP Communications, Club Webmaster

Practice Field Coordinator and is a part of our Mainte-

nance Crew. That’s right, in addition to volunteering

his time in all the activities mentioned, he also volun-

teers his time mowing and caring for the practice fields..

In 2006 and 2007, Jansen volunteered his time to work

with the WMYSA Strategic Planning Committee to re-

design the current landscape of youth soccer in our area.

He has also been an integral component to the success of

our annual soccer tournament. Jansen, a former referee

assignor for the Portage Classic also continues to referee

at the tournament. Those of us who know Norm have

come to love his can do attitude. For many years now

not only is he sched-

uled to referee numer-

ous games throughout

the weekend, but he

is the stand-in referee

anytime one is needed

due to games running

late, weather delays

etc.

Norm, THANK YOU for your years of service and con-

tinued commitment to our family. To borrow a phrase

from the 90s sitcom Cheers, PSC is proud to be able to

say we are a place “where everybody will always know

your name! “

The Portage SC recently recognized Norm Jansen with a

Lifetime Achievement Award. This prestigious award has

only been given to four other recipients in the clubs

twenty-eight years of existence.

Jansen has been a long term active member of the club

since joining the Portage SC family. He was been both an

Assistant Coach and Head Coach with the club. Addition-

ally, to many he is considered the founding father of the

current WMYSA Academy Program.

Before there was an academy program for seven and eight

year olds, in 1995 Jansen developed the “Portage Microns”

Advanced Development Program. One of the better

known recipients of this training and development pro-

gram was Eric Alexander, who currently play on the MLS

Red Bulls team. This program was a huge success and

became one of the building blocks upon the current Acad-

emy Program which now includes eight WMYSA clubs and

over one hundred fifty kids.

He has continued to give back to the game he loves so

much in so many ways. He has been an AYSO Region 74

club has its own practice facility so unlike

many other clubs, we won’t have to fight to try

and find a place to practice.

More and more people are realizing PSC offers

dedicated qualified coaching, state of the art

game and practice facilities, winter training

and all at prices which can’t be beat.

According to PSC Registrar Dana

Pope, this year we had over 453

people register to tryout with our

club. This is a 30% increase from

last year.

As a result of the turnout, the club

has expanded to thirty one teams.

The most it has ever had.

Fortunately for PSC players, the

Record Breaking Turnout at PSC Tryouts

PAGE 2 WWW.PORTAGESOCCER.COM

PSC #’s on the Rise

Past recipients include: Gordon Groves, Kathy Brown, Vern Genisio & John Calnin.

Dana Pope

PSC Registrar

Welcome and thank you for joining our club! PSC has a player development phi-

losophy and believes players with a dependable first touch will be able to create the

time and space to play intelligent and attractive soccer. With reduced importance

upon game results and an emphasis on creative individual and team play, we en-

courage our players to first and foremost establish a solid technical foundation.

We elevate ball touches and on the ball play at every training session at the

younger age groups which blend with a ball distribution and team play focus as

they move through the club. All PSC coaches are required to deliver a training ses-

sion which takes a skills related topic and transitions I through a series of small-

sided games with and without restrictions which always “look like soccer”. Our

coaches are required to set examples of sportsmanship and fair play at all times

with a minimized sideline presence and maximized training session leadership…..

The PSC girls teams also competed in seven

of the twelve divisions. making it to the

championship round if four of their divi-

sions. One team took first and three others

took second.

The 2013 Portage Classic Soccer

Tournament was another huge suc-

cess. Teams from three states con-

verged in city of Portage in order to

compete in divisions ranging from

U9 through U19.

The PSC boys teams competed in

seven of the twelve boys divisions.

In five of those seven divisions our

boys were able to make it to the

championship round. Three of our

teams were able to take first and

two others were able to finish in

second place.

A “Classic Finish” for Portage teams

PAGE 3 WWW.PORTAGESOCCER.COM

PSC Player Development Philosophy

Vu Le

Technical Director

The Portage Soccer Club has teamed up with Team Gazelle to provide our players and fami-

lies with quality uniforms and apparel.

The standard required uniform kit includes two jerseys (one green and one white), one pair

of black shorts, one pair of white shorts and two pair of socks. The entire team is expected to

be dressed with the same uniform for any given game. Players should be in the habit of

bringing all uniform items to every game in case there's a misunderstanding about which

colors to wear. When they're the home team, they may be required to change if there's a

color conflict with the visitors (and on the road, sometimes PSC teams will change colors to

avoid conflict and be good sports). The link for ordering can be found on our team Info tab.

Team Gazelle also has numerous spirit wear apparel items ranging from shirts, t-shirts,

backpacks, etc. If you have any questions please contact our Vice President of Uniforms Jay

Hoffman via email at: [email protected] or at 269.207.6706

Portage Soccer Club Uniform & Apparel

PAGE 4 NEWSLETTER TITLE VOLUME 1, I SSUE 1

Jay Hoffman

VP Uniforms

PSC Alumni Lindsay Tarpley gives back to the club.

Two time Olympic Gold Medalist Lindsay Tarpley will

be returning to Portage on August 2nd to hold player

development clinics at the Portage Soccer Complex.

This is exclusively for the players

within the PSC club.

Lindsay began her travel soccer ca-

reer with the Portage Soccer Club.

She played for the Portage Central

Mustangs. In 2002 as a member of

the U-19 U.S. Women’s National

team, she tallied in sudden death

overtime to give the US a 1-0 win

over Canada in the first ever FIFA

World Championship.

As a member of the University of

North Carolina Tar Heel’s, she led

the nation in scoring in 2003 with

23 goals and 27 assists. This was the most points by a

Tar Heel since Mia Hamm and the 4th highest point

total in the history of women’s college soccer.

She then went on to win 2 Gold medals and play in both

the WPS & NWSL.

The Camp is being held for PSC players and will be

on August 2, 2013 at the Portage Soccer Complex.

Each 2 hour clinic is limited by age and to only 30

campers. Each session will

include 90 minutes of Soccer

followed by 30 minutes of

question and answers.

The cost is only $50 and in-

cludes a camp T-shirt.

Session # 1 runs from 9:30am

to 11:30am and is for ages

U8-U10.

Session # 2 runs from 1:00pm

to 3:00pm and is for ages

U11-U12.

Session # 3 runs from 3:30pm to 5:30pm and is for

ages U13-U15.

Following the last session, the public is invited to

celebrate the induction of B.J. Snow into the PSC

Wall of Fame.

PSC Alumni BJ Snow Inducted into “PSC’s Wall of Fame”


The Portage Soccer Club is proud of the

accomplishments of our players; with the

most recent noted accomplishment of PSC

Alumnus B.J. Snow. At age 36 Snow, who

is married to Lindsay Tarpley (also a PSC

Alumni – two time Olympic champion and

professional player) was recently named

the U.S. Under17 Women’s National Team

Head Coach. This is the first time this

position has been a full time position.

B.J. Snow began his travel soccer career

with the Portage Soccer Club. He attended

and played for Portage Central High

School Mustangs before moving on to the

University of Indiana. While there he was

a four year starter and helped them grab

four straight Big Ten titles and back-to-

back national championships.

He then returned to Portage where he began his

coaching career with his alma mater. He served

as head coach for the Mustangs Men’s program and assistant coach for the Women’s program. He then moved onto

the University of California where he quickly moved from a voluntary to permanent coaching position. After serving

as assistant head coach, in 2011, he was promoted to head coach where he led the Bruins to their second straight Na-

tional title.

In addition to coaching at UCLA, Snow served as the assistant coach for the United States Women’s National Under-

20 Soccer Team in the Germany 2010 FIFA U-20 World Cup. In January of this year, he was hired as the first ever

full-time head coach for the United States Women’s National Under-17 Soccer

Team with the hope of guiding this team to the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup

which will be held in 2014 in Costa Rica.

BJ Snow has proven to be a positive role model on and off the field. As a result

of his accomplishments the Portage Soccer Club will be officially inducting him

into PSC’s Wall of Fame on Friday, August 2, 2013.

B.J. Snow Head Coach US U-17 Women’s National Team

Club fees approved by the PSC Board in May were budgeted to cover estimated expenses outlined below. In line

with the PSC’s policy of full transparency, our budget details are shown for your examination. The budget is con-

servatively based on 350 players.

The Portage Soccer Club Mission

is to promote the development of

amateur soccer players. One of

the ways we do this is by support-

ing the development and main-

taining of the soccer fields for its

PSC teams, for tournament play

and community use.

Several of the complex fields were

built over heavy clay surface

which sometimes cause drainage

issues during heavy or prolonged

rain. In order to protect both

players and field conditions the

PSC board voted to address the

drainage issues.

Turf Services was contracted to

install a perforated drainage sys-

tem. Fields 1 & 2 were completed

last year. In June, work on Field

3 began with 50 millimeter or 2"

perforated drains were trenched

in together with peastone and sand

topping at 5' centers. Almost 100 cubic

yards of dirt was removed during the

installation. The drains were run east

to west and collected into 4" headers

which then lead to adjoining leaching

basins. The header lines were also

topped up with sand and all lines

were seeded. We will continue to cut

the grass on a regular frequency as

instructed by Turf Services the sys-

tem installer.

While the cost can seem ex-

pensive (approx imate ly

$50,000 per field) it is entirely

paid for through field rentals

and revenues generated for

the annual

Portage Clas-

sic Tourna-

ment. This

is why PSC

player fees

stay so low.

PSC Budget for 2013-2014

Field Maintenance Plan


Budget

MRL &

Premier

Full

Season

High

School

2nd Half

Season Academy

Uniforms -$ - -$ -$ -$ 5.00$

Referee fees 12,500.00$ 33.00$ 42.00$ 28.00$ 24.00$ -$

Coaches/Managers fees 14,000.00$ 40.00$ 50.00$ 25.00$ 25.00$ -$

Registrar 2,000.00$ 5.00$ 6.00$ 6.00$ 6.00$ -$

Concession Manager 500.00$ 2.00$ 2.00$ 1.00$ 1.00$

Technical Director of Coaches -

Training/Certification Costs

5,000.00$ 10.00$ 15.00$ 15.00$ 15.00$ -$

Volunteer recognition 1,500.00$ 5.00$ 5.00$ 3.00$ 3.00$ -$

WMYSA 10,000.00$ 30.00$ 30.00$ 30.00$ 30.00$ 35.00$

Field rental 10,000.00$ 23.00$ 33.00$ 23.00$ 23.00$ 10.00$

Misc. field maintenance 7,000.00$ 17.00$ 22.00$ 17.00$ 11.00$ 5.00$

MSPSL Player Fee -$ 17.00$ -$ -$

MSPSL Team Fee -$ 38.00$ -$ -$

Misc. Administration 9,000.00$ 30.00$ 30.00$ 22.00$ 22.00$ 5.00$

2013/2014 budget 71,500.00$ 250.00$ 235.00$ 170.00$ 160.00$ 60.00$

PSC 2013/2014 total fee 250.00$ 235.00$ 170.00$ 160.00$ 60.00$

Budget/fees for 2013/2014 season based on 350 players

Gordon Groves

Fields Manager

The PSC Tournament Committee is

excited to be bringing back the

“Tournament Logo Competition”.

This year we are asking for the

clubs help! We want you to help

design the logo which will be used

on t-shirts, sweatshirts and adver-

tisement for the 2014 Annual tour-

nament.

The player who's design is chosen

will get both a free t-shirt & sweat-

shirt, and their team will win a

Pizza party to be held in October at

one of their practices.

All designs must be submitted to

Ken Pope by October 1, 2013 at

[email protected]

Requirements:

The designs must have no more

than three colors in it.

They can be submitted electroni-

cally or hand drawn. Please note

PSC reserves the right to modify

submissions as needed prior to ap-

proval of artwork from printers.

Why not show us your creativity…..

Where does PSC stand on the controversy between the

“Professional Coach v.s. Parent Coach”

2014 Portage Classic Tournament Logo Competition

I always thought these perspectives

were silly. Just because your con-

sidered a professional coach doesn’t

mean your not developing all the

players. Likewise, just because

you’re a parent coach doesn’t mean

you don’t have the same experience

or level of training as the so called

professional coaches.

Despite this common sense ap-

proach, this argument has been at

the cornerstone of every parent’s

thought process when trying to de-

termine which club to tryout for.

Because of this ongoing controversy,

PSC has a special classification they

like to use when describing their

coaches. When asked how we describe

our coaches, PSC refers them as the

“Professional Parent Coach”.

They know the game, are certified,

have been trained and continue to

gain knowledge through continuing

education. They also place all the

players best interest above the impor-

tance of team records. They under-

stand winning is best accomplished

when it’s a byproduct of player/team

development.

PSC has finally solved the aged old

controversy between which is bet-

ter, the professional soccer coach or

the parent soccer coach.

There are perceived pros and cons

to both these classifications. People

view the Professional Soccer coach

as someone who knows the game, is

certified, has been trained and con-

tinues to gain knowledge through

continuing education. The negative

perception is people feel they put

the team record as a primary mo-

tive above developing all the players

since the better their record is, the

more money they will eventually

make.

The parent coach is viewed as some-

one who wants to help the kids and

has all their best interest at heart.

The negative perception is they

don’t push the players to be their

best since they don’t have the train-

ing and experience of the profes-

sional coach.


The answer to the controversy

between Professional Coaches

vs Parent Coaches is simply

the use of the

“Professional Parent Coach”

2013 Logo

2012 Logo

mailto:[email protected]

The Portage Soccer Club began in 1985 and gained

status as an incorporated non-profit organization in

February 1991. Starting with only four boys’ teams

playing in the West Michigan Youth Soccer Associa-

tion (WMYSA). Today PSC is one of the largest clubs

in WMYSA, fielding a combination of thirty-one boys

and girls teams playing from U9 all the way to U19.

Although PSC has changed in size over the years,

our philosophy of emphasizing player development

over winning has remained and our teams have per-

formed very well on the field in terms of both skill

and results. Our belief is players, parents, the club,

and the community will always "win through devel-

opment" supporting youth to their maximum poten-

tial.

PSC owns and maintains the Portage Soccer Com-

plex at 4422 Bishop Road (east of Sprinkle and

south of Bishop/Romence) where home games are

played. This nine field complex opened in 2002 and

is now recognized as one of the foremost soccer com-

plexes in Michigan.

President: David Rice

Treasurer: Tom Mellinger

Secretary: Kim Maystead

VP Coaches: Wayne Harpenau

Dir. Tech Development: Vu Le

VP Communications: Norm Jansen

VP Concessions: Sean Bowser

VP Fundraising: Bill Restivo

VP Uniforms: Jay Hoffman

Registrar: Dana Pope Parent Representatives: Chad Earles, Janet Ingersoll, Lisa Hall

Field Manager: Gordon Groves

Web Master: Ken Pope

Tournament Director: David Rice

PORTAGE SOCCER CLUB BOARD

PSCs Volunteerism Requirements

Were on the web

Www.PortageSoccer.com

PSC HISTORY

We would like to extend a special thanks to our 240 + volunteers

who helped make the 2013 Portage Classic Tournament a success.

This tournament is the club’s biggest fundraising event of the

year.

The complex is not only owned by PSC, but it is completely paid

for. All profits from this tournament are put directly back into

the complex to pay for field drainage systems, parking lot, build-

ing and field repairs, mowing and striping supplies and equip-

ment etc.

The tournament generates enough money to allow our teams to

play on the nicest fields in the state. We also are one of the least

expensive clubs anywhere. There are no hidden fees; you get

quality coaching, your own practice fields, an incredible game

complex and all for one low price.

It’s important to know when accepting a position with our club,

each players’ family agrees to volunteer during the year for con-

cessions (1 shift a season) and 4 hours at the Portage Soccer

Classic in June.

This includes the girls teams which don’t play club in the spring.

Since fees are the same for all, every team is expected to volun-

teer at the tournament.

Keeper July 2013

Documents

green girls portage

white girls portage

green boys portage sc

white boys portage sc

yellow girls portage

black girls portage

portage soccer club

youth soccer players