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In The News

Champion soccer camp changes things up

Published in the Wayland Town Crier 3/26/2009 - also online: http://www.wickedlocal.com/wayland/sports/x1984811221/Champion-soccer-camp-changes-things-up

WAYLAND -  Champion Soccer School, a soccer camp for boys and girls in grades K-12, has been running every August for two weeks at the Wayland High School for the last six years. It was originally founded by Charles Goodhue, Peter Haist, and D.J. Eckert - all from the Wayland class of 2002 - in the wake of co-captaining Wayland High School to its only soccer state title back in 2001. Eckert has since moved on to work on presidential and senate campaigns in DC while Haist is now fully engrossed in the financial world working for The Bank of New York Mellon. Similarly, Goodhue has moved on to work for Eastern Research Group, Inc. in Lexington, MA as an environmental economic consultant but still finds time to assistant coach the Wayland boys varsity soccer team and plan Champion. Goodhue stated ``Aside from enjoying the type of work I do at ERG, I love the flexibility of the schedule that allows me to coach high school soccer and continue to work on Champion Soccer.''
      After attracting just under 80 kids over two weeks in its first year, Champion blossomed and attracted around 150 kids over the two-week span in August for the next several summers. ``We had not had a down year until last summer,'' Goodhue explained. ``Obviously, the economic downturn had a lot to do with it, but I think that Champion was also due for a little bit of a makeover and sometimes you just need some fresh ideas.''
     Enter Brian Bisceglia-Kane, who was a fellow soccer teammate of Goodhue at Brandeis University and current soccer coach for Belmont High while teaching third grade at Daniel Butler Elementary School in Belmont. Goodhue described his excitement to work with Bisceglia-Kane, ``Brian is a perfect match for Champion. He loves soccer, loves working with kids, and has a lot of pride in his work. I'm extremely confident that people attending the camp this year are going to love the program.''
     Goodhue and Bisceglia-Kane are opening two new weeks of camp where Bisceglia-Kane teaches at Daniel Elementary in Belmont - a multi-sport and arts and crafts camp during April break for grades K-4 and a week-long soccer camp, starting June 29 for grades K-8. ``Brian brings a lot to the table, obviously his soccer credentials alone allow him to be a key member of starting a soccer camp, but his lesson planning capabilities, organization, and experience of teaching elementary students have allowed us to open a more diverse multi-sport and arts and crafts camp during April break - not to mention his Belmont fan club. In many of our online registration forms, we have been receiving comments like `Brian is the man', `Brian is the best teacher ever', or `we can't wait to start camp with Brian'. They clearly love him there,'' stated Goodhue. In fact the concept of the camp is so popular that they reached their capacity of 60 kids in mid-march, an entire month before the camp is to start. The duo is also opening up two evening clinics in Wayland for high school players - a training clinic at the beginning of the summer to focus on techniques and drills that players can continue to work on the rest of the summer, and a skills and conditioning clinic at the end of August right before preseason to help players shake off the rust and prepare themselves for preseason.
      The new pair of co-owners has identified some areas of improvement to ensure Champion continues to flourish even in these times of economic uncertainty. Bisceglia-Kane explained, ``One thing that had to be cut was price. Champion is a great camp - I worked there for years before taking on this ownership role, but the bottom line is no matter how great a camp is, if a family can't afford it, they're not going to be able to send their kids.'' Last year, a single week at Champion would cost someone from $250-$300. This year a full week costs between $150 and $200; how did they manage to cut such a significant portion of the cost without sacrificing the quality of the camp? ``Well, first, we cut out a lot of our administrative costs. I spent some time to make everything about the registration and correspondence process online. We got rid of paper registration, setup online registration with credit card payments, eliminated paper correspondence, and send all of our camp reminders, receipts, and camp information via e-mail - this should save us significant money and time in terms of administrative costs. Second, we cut down the size of the brochure. It used to be a 12-page packet stapled together. Now, it is one third the size, one piece of paper folded into a six-page brochure. Our goal is to attract people to the web site where they can sign up online, where before, our goal was for people to read the brochure and sign up with materials provided in the brochure. Third, we've opened up more weeks of camps. Now, with two new weeks in Belmont and two evening high school clinics, we've been able to spread out the cost of advertising and program planning over six weeks of camps rather than just two weeks. We are not cutting any elements out of the camp itself, we still provide balls and shirts for all of our day campers, still maintain our low camper to coach ratio, still provide Gatorade, awards, and player evaluations for all the campers,'' explained Goodhue. He continued, ``The lower prices, and online registration seem to be already paying off as the early registration is looking very strong - I'm excited for what is looking like another successful year.''
     If you're interested in any of Champion's programs including an April break multi-sport and arts and crafts camp (grades K-4) in Belmont, a June soccer camp in Belmont (K-8), a June and August high school evening clinic in Wayland (9-12), or the August day soccer camp in Wayland (K-12), visit www.ChampionSoccerSchool.com for more information.

Published 7/24 in Wayland Town Crier
Also On WickedLocal.com - http://www.wickedlocal.com/wayland/sports/x223014636/Soccer-champions-giving-back-to-their-community

Soccer champions giving back to their community

WAYLAND -

Nearly seven years ago, the Wayland High School boys soccer team walked off the turf field of Worcester State College with its first and only state championship to date.
Three of the team's senior captains, Charles Goodhue, D.J. Eckert, and Peter Haist, may have walked off the field that day having played their last varsity soccer game for the Warriors, but their impact on Wayland's entire soccer program is being felt stronger by the year.

After graduating, the trio set up Champion Soccer School in an effort to give back to the Wayland soccer community and continue to positively impact the Wayland soccer program that gave so much to their team.
Haist, one of the cofounders of the program noted, ``Parents, coaches, and Wayland Youth Soccer (WAYS) administrators volunteered countless hours to develop a strong youth soccer program and help teach us the game that we all loved. Without them, nothing we achieved in high school would have been possible.''
Haist continued, ``This is our chance to take what we learned throughout our soccer experience and offer it to the current generation of Wayland boys and girls soccer.''
In the camp's first five years, they have done just that, as over 600 kids have attended the program that perennially runs the first full two weeks of August.

Goodhue, cofounder of the program noted, ``It has been great to see the growth of the program. Our first year about 75 kids attended over the two weeks that we offered the camp. The past few years about 140 kids have attended. I think this growth is attributed to the quality of the coaches.''
Goodhue was a three-time DCL all-star for soccer at Wayland, and continued to play collegiately at Brandeis University where he was also a league all-star and was named to the ESPN the magazine Academic All East team. He more recently coached the Wayland boys U-18 team to the Mass Tournament of Champions (MTOC) where they made the final four.

``When we started the camp, I was confident that I would be able to find responsible, fun, and quality coaches as we were mostly hiring teammates from Brandeis and Wayland,'' said Goodhue. ``These were people I knew well and trusted, and I was confident that they could provide the safe, fun, and educational atmosphere for all participants that helped Champion grow and flourish in its first three years. In order to replace them, as many of them have started to move on to full time jobs, I've been hiring primarily former Champion participants. This has been great for the camp as these coaches (because of their participation) know exactly what it takes to maintain the culture of Champion that we worked so hard to establish in its first few years. In addition, they are tremendous soccer players and people that I know well and completely trust to put in charge of all the campers.''

One former participant of the program, who will now be coaching at the camp for her second year, Meredith Malloy, remarks on the sense of community that the coaches bring to the program. ``I'd say that Champion Soccer School is different from other soccer camps I've attended in that it feels like a personal experience with the coach,'' Malloy said. ``Throughout the camp you get a lot of personal attention, and you receive a very specific evaluation at the end of camp, which really helps your game. The fact that most of the coaches went through Wayland Schools really gives the camp a sense of community.''
Malloy attended Champion Soccer School for three years, before becoming a first-team DCL all-star her senior year. She was a three-year varsity soccer player at Wayland, and now attends Quinnipiac where she is on the women's ice hockey team.

Alex Burgun-Tower (known by his teammates as BT) is a former participant at Champion and is now co-captain for the boys varsity soccer team this upcoming fall following a successful campaign last year leading to DCL all-star honors.
``One of the reasons Champion stood out from the rest was the camper-counselor relationship,'' said Burgun-Tower. ``Champion counselors were not only instructors, but also became friends with the campers. This is one of the reasons why I had more fun at Champion. I had friends who weren't serious about soccer at all who had a blast at this camp because of the counselors, the games, and the overall atmosphere. But I would also recommend this camp to youth soccer players who not only want a fun time, but want to excel in soccer. It's really cool to have former Wayland soccer players teaching you; they have been playing soccer their whole lives, and they incarnate an achievement for young players to strive for.''

Goodhue's response to what the former campers had to say was ``I'm really glad they think so. We've worked hard to ensure that Champion cater to both those looking to simply have a fun week of playing soccer as well as those looking to improve their game for the upcoming season. We've had numerous future captains and DCL all-stars such as BT and Meredith come through the program and have tremendous high school and college careers, and now we are lucky to have them on board as coaches - it's shaping up to be another tremendous couple of weeks this August.''
For anyone interested in attending Champion Soccer School. It takes place at the Wayland High School August 4-8 and 11-15 for field players and goalies grades K-12. Information can be found at: www.ChampionSoccerSchool.com. Email: ChampionSoccerSchool@yahoo.com. Phone (781) 718-3238.

From the Wayland Town Crier - 7/17/2008

Twelve Year Run by 2008 Graduates Comes to End at State Soccer Championships

 

They had been playing soccer together since they were 1st graders. Playing in both the fall and spring over twelve years translates into a total of more than 300 games played for Wayland!  They graduated from the high school on June 8 but at 8am on Sunday morning, June 29, they were still playing soccer together… perhaps for the last time. What better place for such an event to take place but the semi finals of the  U19 championship at the Massachusetts Tournament of Champions (the state wide competition for the top teams from the state’s eight different youth leagues).

 

Dan Barnes, Graham Clark, Dan Cowen, Mark Foreman, and footballer (American style) Julian Ponsetto filling in for the injured Sam Bekenstein, took the field together at 8am for their semi-final match against Swampscott, the Essex County Champion and first place finisher from the other U19 group of five teams. They were there on the strength of a 1-0 win (Mark Foreman the goal scorer on a perfectly executed one touch redirection) in their fourth and final game of group play the evening before. The win gave the team a win and three ties over a 24 hour time period, good enough for a 2nd place finish in their group of five and their early morning “date” in the semifinals.

 

Participation in this tournament was the culmination not only of an undefeated spring season in league play but also of a journey marked over the years by their love of the game combined with their strong and abiding friendship on and off the field.

 

Julian Ponsetto, headed to Boston College in the fall, may have chosen football over soccer when he entered high school, but he never lost his passion for the world game of football.  He kept on playing whenever he got a chance. Sam Bekenstein, perennial Dual County league soccer all-star, headed to Yale where he will play soccer, abandoned club soccer as a freshman so he could play lacrosse. And continue to play soccer with his “buds”. Dan Barnes, off to Amherst College in the fall, was one of the team’s steady and dependable defenders. For what he may have lacked in speed he more than made up with skill and abundant smarts - never getting beaten without poking the ball away from the attacker. Graham Clark, bound for Merrimack where he will play in goal, is perhaps the most athletic goalie to have ever played for Wayland. He caught the eye of college recruiters despite picking up the position only as a sophomore and never playing club soccer. Mark Foreman, headed to the University of Rhode Island , is distinguished by his ever present smile and twinkle in his eyes.  He proved to be the team’s all-purpose player. During the state tournament he played all the positions on the field but goal:  striker, center midfield, outside midfield, stopper and sweeper! Quiet but incredibly consistent with his play was Boston College bound John Cappellucci. Like Mark Foreman, John played a key role for the team by filling in at several positions over the season.  During the tournament he mainly played as one of two center midfielders.  Last but not least was the team’s spiritual leader, Dan Cowen. An EverReady Battery with incredible speed, stamina and passion (for everything!), Dan is headed to Washington D.C in the fall for a year with “City Year” before heading to Syracuse University . Pre-game cheers were Dan’s domain always coming up with something absurd that would leave the coaches shaking their heads and the players psyched to play!

 

Of course it takes more than five players to make a soccer team. And there was nothing exclusionary about this group of graduating seniors – in fact quite the opposite. They were joined by a strong core of underclass varsity players to form a team with great skill and even greater spirit.

 

Rising seniors Alexander “BT” Burgun-Tower and Steven Byrn teamed with Dan Barnes and Mark Foreman along with rising juniors Conor O’Neil and Or Efrat to form the leading defensive unit in the league. Over the course of seven regular season games and three Memorial Day Tournament games they allowed only four goals. During their eight post-season playoff and state tournament games they allowed only three more goals for an impressive total of seven goals allowed over eighteen games! Of course it helps to have an all-league goalie behind you making a number of unbelievable saves over the course of the season to keep the goals against at such a low number!

 

At midfield Cappellucci and Cowen were joined by rising seniors Lucas Holmes and Max Hill and rising junior Andy Bekenstein.  As the season progressed the midfield developed an increasingly impressive combination of possession play through the middle and speed on the flanks.

 

Up front striker Sam Bekenstein displayed his renowned tenacity and skill with the ball before being lost to injury half way through the season. Mark Foreman moved up from sweeper to fill the gap left by Bekenstein’s injury and immediately showed an ability to create scoring opportunities working with heady rising Senior James Ivker and bullet fast rising junior Mike Trueblood. Rising senior Brendan Place , like a human canon ball, unfortunately sustained a knee injury in the last regular game of the season played under the lights on the stadium field - a 2-1 win over Dedham that clinched first place in the BAYS U18 1A division.

 

Perhaps the key to it all, however, was Charles Goodhue, the team’s chief strategist and coach. In two previous seasons the team had been trained by James Bede, the extraordinary local professional who has worked with many different Wayland teams over the years. Gray Holmes and Josh Bekenstein, the team’s organizers and coach wannabees, thought a different point of view and someone who could also coach the games would be good for the team’s development. They struck gold!

 

A captain of the 2001Wayland team that won the state soccer championship, Charles and several of his high school teammates are the founders and continuing organizers of the Champion Soccer School .  The school, now in its 6th year, has
built a strong local reputation.  It is held the first two weeks of August at the high school for kindergartner through high school age kids (go to championsoccerschool.com for further information). Charles played soccer at Brandeis University and graduated in 2006 with a BA in Chemistry and Economics. He then earned a MA in Chemistry from Harvard and is now working as a health and environmental consultant for the Eastern Research Group in Lexington .

 

Without hesitation, Charles agreed to coach the team and allowed that he would volunteer his time “to give back to the Wayland soccer program”.  On display at the state tournament was a team playing its best soccer of the season thanks to his guidance and mentoring.  Soft-spoken, Charles got the attention of his players at Saturday practices and Sunday games through their respect for him as a person, for his knowledge of soccer and for his ability to identify and communicate key game strategies.

 

So you may ask, how did the semifinal state tournament game turn out? The team played with only one substitute as they had the entire tournament (due to injury and vacations) against a Swampscott team with five substitutes. Undeterred, the Wayland boys played smart, high quality possession soccer from start to finish. Swampscott played a similar game and together they put on a magnificent display of soccer. Swampscott had a great opportunity in the second half but their shot soared well over the Wayland goal.  It was Wayland that created the most scoring opportunities. There were several softly chipped direct kicks from just outside the penalty area that created some tantalizing scoring chances and some dangerous plays in from the wings. But neither team could score during regulation time.  Tournament rules called for 10 minutes of overtime. Again, no goals. So the game went to penalty kicks.

 

Swampscott shot first. Graham Clark anticipated perfectly and made a diving save to his right. Wayland followed with precision shots executed by Mark Foreman, John Cappellucci and Lucas Holmes. Swampscott matched goal for goal. And then the Swampscott goalie took over. He anticipated a shot by Steven Byrn to the upper right and deflected it wide. Swampscott followed with a well placed shot just out of the reach of Clark’s dive. And then Mike Trueblood stepped up having to score to keep the team’s hopes alive. Talk about pressure! He fired a blast labeled for the lower left corner. With perfect anticipation and an incredible dive, the Swampscott goalie deflected the ball off the post and wide of the goal for a Swampscott win.

 

Though it is always tough to lose, the Wayland team knew they had played a great game against a good opponent. They congratulated the Swampscott team in the traditional handshake line, thanked the referees as they always did after every game, and gathered their belongings one last time. Not left behind – no way! – was the recently adopted team mascot, an orange Mickey Mouse bouncy ball the team had won at Chucky Cheese before their win the evening before that had clinched 2nd place. There was laughter and congratulations

all around. A great run for five remarkable young men had come to a close. But no tears were shed, no disappointment to share as it was time to move on. Places to go. Friends to meet. Fun to be had. And memories to be cherished.