Springfield MO Soccer

I hope you will join us on Thursday for our 4th annual game. This has been a 10 month process, culminating in the final high school game for the Class of 2008. Jeremy, Zack and I have spent a significant amount of time over the past month in final preparations. Your support for the players and the event is an important part of growing the soccer community in the region. We’ve got over 50 high school teams in the region and I’d like to believe we can outdraw the football and basketball crowds I’ve seen at their recent All-Star events.

You’ll get a final glimpse of Katie Pritchard, Class 2 career scoring leader, before she puts on her Converse and heads for the gym (they still wear Converse, right?) at Drury.

There are 18 All-State players participating in the game. There are over 30 players headed for college careers following tonight’s game. Missouri State has signed three (Tara Bailes, Heath Melugin and Justin Scicluna – West Plains) and Drury has signed a pair (Katy McLain, Kyler Temple) from Kickapoo.

Missouri Southern has four (Brianna Ragains, Randi Russell, Stephanie Taylor and Stuart Ziegler) while Missouri S&T has signed one (Zack Hay). Southwest Baptist has a pair headed to Bolivar (Natasha Lord, Blair Baker). Chealsey Russell is headed for Rice (D1) while Anne Prenger will be at UMSL (D2) and Lou Opfer at Truman State (D2) which means we’ll see them when they play Drury, MSSU or SBU.

There are 5 players who follow older siblings in representing their school at the All-Star game. Zack Hay’s older brother Nick played in the first game in December 2004, Ryan Schlichtman’s older brother Nick, now at Truman State, played in 2006. Tyler McElroy’s older sister Laura played last year, and was Freshman player of the Year for Grinnell this past season at GK. Carter McKay’s older brother Adam played in the first game in December 2004 and Erica Hogan’s older sister Melissa played last year (Ozark).

So there are plenty of great stories and it’s always a competitive game. Josh Scott coaches his final game before becoming AD at Waynesville, he’s joined by Mike Gow on the sideline. They’ll face off against Phil Hodge and Mike Howard in the boys game. Tom Davidson (Ozark) and Jeff Rogers (Glendale) face off for the hundredth time it seems as they will both patrol the sideline during the girls game, assisted by Ben Timson (Catholic) and Evan Palmer (Nixa). For Tom, it will be one last time to coach his former Kickapoo players.

We hope to see you at Cooper Soccer Complex at Lake Country Soccer in Springfield on Thursday evening. Girls play at 6:00 pm and Boys play at 8:00 pm. Represent!

All-Star game flyer