96 shirts!

Just as an addendum to the previous item, earlier this week the second order of shirts for Trinity Lime Rock Summer Soccer 2007 participants arrived, three dozen of them, supplementing the 5 1/2 dozen we received earlier.

Tomorrow we'll start handing them out -- these are for the people (kids and adult volunteers) who have appeared since the Summer season began and since we placed the first shirt order this year.

Interestingly, two of the shirts will be going to participants in Norway who appeared (and played well) for two sessions while visiting the US -- their dad had been an exchange student at Housatonic Valley Regional HS back in the 1980s and he brought his family over to show what things were like in the US. They returned home last week, but their shirts will be following them shortly.

Team Picture

We're about half way through Summer Soccer 2007, so here is a "team picture" from last Sunday's session.

When I look at this group, I'm amazed at how this program at a very small, rural Episcopal parish in New England has grown in 2 1/2 years. That first year, there was one session when I was the only participant. There was also one session when only I and the kid who had suggested the program to begin with attended.

Around this time that first summer I had the feeling on more than one occasion that it really wasn't going to work at all. Eventually, no one would show up; the few people in the congregation who had raised their eyebrows when I had suggested the program to them would be shown to have been right after all.

Then a remarkable thing happened. One Sunday, as I was standing at the far end of the corridor leading toward the field, I saw a very old woman whom I knew from the congregation making her way purposefully down the hall toward me. Her name, I knew, was Marge, and I also knew that she was 99 years old.

She manouvered her walker up to me, pointed her finger at me, looked me in the eye, and said "Are you the soccer man?"

I was afraid that I was about to be told that I was doing something Godless or worse and that I ought to be ashamed of myself for having ed this program. With that in my mind, I swallowed hard and said "Yes, I guess I am."

Marge said "Well, keep it up!" and turned and manouvered her walker back down the hall toward the church.

If I ever had seriously contemplated dropping the soccer program, Marge's admonition to keep it up pretty much put those thoughts to rest. She's now 100, and I'm not sure she's been at church this summer to see the kids in their new purple shirts -- at her age she's certainly entitled to take a few weeks or even months off -- but she has been there in my mind every Sunday.

Thanks, Marge!

Salvation Army and Lime Rock Park?

There was an interesting article yesterday in the Waterbury Republican, noting that the local Salvation Army was sending their youth group to the American LeMans race at Lime Rock Park, in Lakeville, on July 6.

Now, knowing the Salvation Army, you may suspect that the youth group will be armed with their traditional red kettles and be charged with collecting money from the reasonable well-heeled track patrons (after all, admission to the track that day costs $65, so they might just have some spare change for the Salvation Army). Conversely, you might expect that they will whip out band instruments and render a short concert (after all, Judy Collins is doing a concert later in July at the same venue).

No, according to that article, neither is the case. The objective of the visit is so the youth group members can see the race, enjoy a day in the most beautiful race venue anywhere, and perhaps see a religious connection.

Well, this is sports ministry. I find it provocative because my parish church, Trinity Lime Rock, is directly across the street from the Outfield entrance of Lime Rock Park, and during the fifty years we have shared our common location, our two organizations have succeeded in cooperating only in our providing parking for their overflow visitors in our field, and in our clergy delivering occasional invocations at the track.

I'm a little deflated that I have not been able to come up with a sports ministry for our own young people involving Lime Rock Park, while the Salvation Army, forty miles away in Waterbury, has been able to do so.

Record attendance

Just a quick update after the fourth session of the third season of Summer Soccer at Trinity Lime Rock.

Today we broke -- shattered, really -- our previous attendance record, with 41 people in the field. We also had several people who had previously not taken the plunge venture into church for Communion as the soccer session wound down.

Interesting that we succeeded in breaking the record on a Sunday when few of our own faithful year-round kids were present (this was the first Sunday of that ten day July 4th weekend that you get when the 4th falls in the middle of the week, and most of our own were off on vacation, or in summer camp, or visiting family elsewhere).

Assuming that most of these people return, won't the kids who regularly come be surprised to find that they've been invaded! It will be interesting to see the dynamics of this.

Two weeks into the third season -- progress report

I said I'd report back after the first session, but I guess I missed that target.

Well, the first Sunday we had 24 people in the field (about 19 kids) which probably is as many as we had had last summer at our high point. The picture on the left, which is Coach Richard Kirby talking to some of the kids, was taken that first Sunday.

You can also get a peek at the 2007 soccer shirts. Neat, huh?

Then, last Sunday (the second Sunday of Summer Soccer this year, and Fathers Day to booot) we had 31 people in the field, mostly kids -- we were a little hard pressed for coaches in fact. We had two simultaneous scrimmages going on, and some of the littlest kids still pretty much entertaining themselves -- not where I want to be with this.

Fact is, we were so busy that I didn't even get to take any pictures! The high points included the return to Trinity of one boy who I last saw three years ago (and didn't recognize when I saw him Sunday). Also, when we gathered in a circle for the Lord's Prayer, having to consciously project my voice due to the size of the circle.

The local paper, the one that rarely prints our stuff, has now printed something about our Summer Soccer program for FOUR consecutive weeks. I'm dreading the inevitable requests from the chairs of the various programs at Trinity for me to exercise my influence with the local paper to get THEIR activities publicized. I guess I will have to suggest to them that they do something really different -- and then the journalists will beat a path to their doors.

Well, this Sunday I hereby promise to take a lot more pictures. Maybe even some video so I can put a more current video on the Trinity website (courtesy of YouTube, of course).

Here's a question: do you think it makes any sense to put an activity on the Trinity Lime Rock group in FaceBook for soccer? All thoughts welcome......

Been a while....

Tomorrow starts our third summer of what began as Summer Sunday School Soccer at Trinity Lime Rock, and our first year when we have been active in publicizing the program in the larger community.

Last summer we had around 35 kids attend at one point or another, some for one session and some for nearly all. This summer we already have 54 kids formally registered (something we didn't do last summer) -- and our local newspaper has printed not one but two notices about the program.

Over the past four days I've been participating in the tryouts for Berkshire United Soccer Club (BUSC) our local youth soccer organization, and I've been surprised at how many of the adults and the kids whom I did not know knew who I was. One mom who introduced herself said that another mom (whose name I recognized but who had not registered her kids) was planning to attend.

I said "great but tell her to get there early -- I ordered 66 shirts, and 56 are already spoken for".

Well, here goes.

I'll report back after day one.

Getting ready to go public

Well, we've run the summer soccer program at Trinity Lime Rock for two summers now. The first one started off a bit slowly, but gained momentum. The second summer took off where the last one ended and grew from there.

Anyhow, we figure that it is now time to start reaching outside the church. There are certainly kids in Lime Rock who play soccer seriously, whose families have no connection to Trinity, and who wouldn't be apt to hear about the program. Well, they might hear if our kids talked about the program at Berkshire United, or in town rec soccer, or in school soccer. However, kids are kids and don't tend to tell other kids about church.

So, we will have to do the telling. We're thinking a press release that the local paper, the Lakeville Journal will -- with a little bit of luck -- print at least part of. We're also planning on mailing invitations to the known soccer kids who live in the area of the church. And, I guess I will e-mail all the area soccer folks who are in my directory.

It will be interesting to see how it goes. We'll keep you posted.