Green Mountain Soccer – Page 2 – Defend the Mountain

Do You Believe?

On Monday, Green Mountain Soccer Alumni Brent Anderson (also proud father of AJ Anderson) shared his experiences from the state championship years of 1987 and 1988 with the current Rams. He had some great stories about toughness, conditioning, and the sheer footprint the program had at the school.

Brent talked about how great players from around the front range wanted to choice into GMHS to be part of the soccer team. I interrupted him and explained that one of our goals has to be to get the program to a level of success where we not only hold onto the best players in our area, but attract players from the region to choice into GMHS once again.

Brent disagreed.

Midseason Culture Week

As we enter the last week in September, it is important to remember that most of our players have been working hard through the summer heat since the last week in June. Three long months. This is when the season becomes a grind. This is when we have to do something different, and do it together.

Soccer Baseball 9/23

We have a home JV match Saturday, September 23rd at 10am at our turf field hosting Littleton. All players, including guys not suiting up for the game, are required to be there.

After the game, at roughly noon, we are going to have some fun playing soccer baseball on our grass field. How does soccer baseball differ from kickball, you might be wondering? Well, there are goal keepers, you can have multiple runners on each base, and the defense can’t use their hands (except the goal keepers). It is super fun, laid back, and easy to learn.

This is a full program soccer baseball game – parents, siblings and alumni included!

Effort

We had 160 minutes of nice performances Tuesday taking both games from Bear Creek by identical 3-0 scores. That is two more clean sheets led in back by Brady, Shaun, Luke, Dom, Miles, Peter and Tyler. Tarin added two more to his goal tally as our program leading scorer, and Nolan got a goal and an assist. Dean and Jake also came up with big assists. Elliot started what is sure to be a prolific four year goal scoring career with two on Tuesday, with X tallying a goal and an assist. Kaden had a soccer assist and and hockey assist as he was impressive on the wing.

Progress

Coming off a week where our program hit our team-culture-rock-bottom, we bounced back and made some serious progress this week. Together.

Leave the Past Behind

We have a cancer festering in our program. You might think I am crazy to lead with such a negative statement in such a public way, but I am calling on everyone in the program – players, coaches and parents alike – to help us turn this around before the season is lost. This past week we conducted a systematic investigation, with support of GMHS administration, that uncovered hazing/bullying, teasing, childish behavior, and disrespectful varsity players in the grandstands at both our JV game and a game of another GMHS sport. This will simply not be tolerated. Your coaching staff now has a clear understanding of how a team with this kind of conditioning and tallent went 3-11-1 last year. The culture needs a complete overhaul, and we need your help.

Road Trip

Sun Setting Behind the Mountain after Shutout of George Washington

Green Mountain Soccer is 1-0 after successfully defending the mountain, refusing to concede to George Washington, on Friday night. Colin dropped in a great goal from distance from the left channel on an assist from Kaden. Shaun, along with a stifling performance from centerbacks Miles and Giancarlo, delivered the first clean sheet of the fall campaign. Richard made some notable runs on the wing, and Brett earned the honor from Coach Rigo to carry the victory flag in cooldown. It was a true team win! And the best news…there is still lots of room for improvement as we keep working to get wide and get better.

This coming week, we take a charter bus to Elizabeth on our only full-program-travelling-together away games of the year. All players are expected to ride to the games on the bus, and to ride back to school on the bus as well. There is a great opportunity for team building on the bus, and the parents have a plan to provide dinner on our road trip. Let’s make the most of our only bus of the year! Here are the details:

It’s Game Time!

There is A LOT in this post. Please find the time to read through so you don’t miss anything.

Weekly Training Schedule

Week One

At a GMHS athletic department meeting on Thursday night, I was asked to choose just one word to describe our boy’s soccer program for the 2023 season. I thought about the feedback I received from the players and parents throughout the summer. On the fourth day of Team Week, the consensus among the team was that success will be defined by us bonding, playing for each other and ignoring individual stats. Teamwork. Pulling each other through the fight.

Together

August 12th Scrimmages

At the end of tryouts week, we are scheduled to participate in a multi-team scrimmage at Mullen High School. This is a really exciting opportunity to see where we are going into the season.

Schedule the Week of August 7th:

Monday, August 7th, Tryouts 4pm – 5:30pm

Tuesday, August 8th, Tryouts 5:30pm – 7pm

Wednesday, August 9th, Tryouts 4pm – 5:30pm

Thursday, August 10th, Tryouts 5:30pm – 7pm

Friday, August 11th, Training 4pm – 5:30pm

Saturday, August 12th, Scrimmages at Mullen: Varsity 8am – 1pm, JV 1pm – Late Afternoon