After Covid wiped out the 2020 Spring session, we are so glad to be back in action for Spring 2021!
Spring Teams – Hopefully all of you have started getting contacted by your coaches about practice schedules and team organization. Some preliminary game schedules are out and more should be available soon. As late signups come in there may be some roster shuffling but everyone will stay in the same player pools and get the same coaches.
New Player Uniforms Late registrants may see slight delays in getting their uniforms delivered. As a reminder, those that ordered uniforms by 3/15 and did not pick them up at the Spring Kickoff last Saturday may pick them up from the Wolves Clubhouse at the La Vista Sports Complex tonight (3/23) from 6:00 – 7:30 p.m. Looks like it will be a damp evening but we’ll be there.
Meet The DOC
Wolves’ Director of Coaching Gauthier (“Goat”) Scherlizin has been with the club since the Phoenix FC days, long before our affiliation with Wolverhampton started. While we try to get him outfitted in Wolves gear you may still see the occasional Phoenix logo show up at practice too.
Goat started playing club soccer in Belgium, then in Omaha and various other stops around the US, and we all benefit from the variety of experiences he brings to the pitch. His daughter Ocean and son Everest are former PFC / Wolves players, who have gone on to bigger and better things (such as Ocean playing for the Belgian national youth team…). Goat’s father was a former PFC coach and member of the Board of Directors, making this a three generation effort on their part.
Goat coaches the U12 boys and floats around at other times to help with any and all age groups. Check out his bio on our website, and if you have any soccer / team related questions he’s the go to guy so don’t be afraid to ask.
Game Schedules
The NYSL schedule is out for our older teams, though with some games left as TBD and at least one already rescheduled so keep in touch with your team manager or coach for updates.
Younger teams in the Sarpy County League and Alliance festivals should get their preliminary schedules shortly. Note that Alliance games are not scheduled much more than a week in advance – every weekend is treated as a separate mini-tournament and you will know what day you play well ahead of time, but not the exact times. The lack of a set schedule allows them to adjust as the season goes on, if a team does very poorly they can be given lower level opponents, and vice versa. There are only 4-5 weekends with Alliance games (you will not play in all of them), and you will usually get two games per Saturday.
Sarpy County League home games will be at La Vista once the facility is open. Their schedule is structured not to interfere with the Alliance weekends and may include one or two games per Saturday.
Games on other days of the week are possible if there are coaching conflicts or rainouts need to be rescheduled, but normally all U7 to U10 teams can expect to be playing primarily on Saturdays.
Peter with Wolves coaches and staff.
Spring Kickoff
Thank you to everyone who turned out for the Spring Kickoff! And special thanks to Peter Marlette from Union Omaha for showing up and working with the clubs in the community. We look forward to our relations with Union Omaha to continue to grow, ignoring that little Covid-related hiatus we took last year.
Spring Cup Tournament
Teams are already signing up for our Spring Cup Tournament – June 5-6 at the La Vista Sports Complex. Participation is free to all Wolves teams. Parents may also help out at the tournament in a variety of roles, earning money towards their accounts or just getting a check. We don’t arm twist for volunteers, if you do the work, you get the benefits. Our tournaments are the major fundraisers for the Club, helping keep your team costs as low as possible.
We also have many opportunities for advertising and sponsorships at our tournaments – if you know anyone who is interested we will give you 10% commission on all referrals! Help us help you! See the website for some of the available sponsorships at the tournament, club, or team level.
Wolverhampton Update
Since the last newsletter, our EPL affiliate Wolverhampton Wanderers lost a tough one to defending champions Liverpool, 1-0. They also lost goalkeeper Rui Patricio to injury, though reports are it is not too serious but it will probably keep him from reporting to the Portugese national team during the international break. On the good news side of things, team captain Conor Coady has been called up to the English team for national duty, one of several Wolves players who will be representing their countries. Others who will be traveling include:
– Owen Otasowie (USA) has been called up for two Europe-based friendlies, vs. Jamaica in Austria and Northern Ireland in Belfast.
– Leander Dendoncker has been included in Belgium’s national squad.
– Romain Saiss and Willy Boly will be involved in Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers for Morocco and Ivory Coast, respectively.
– Pedro Neto, Ruben Neves, and Joao Moutinho will be with the Portugese national team, while Vitinha will be with Portugal’s Under-21s.
Next Up after the break – a Premier League game vs. West Ham on April 5th!
