Tag Archives: Branson Pirates

Missouri State Bears High School Boys Team Camp

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The Boys Team Camp is wrapping up today over at Missouri State University and as is my tradition, I took in the All-Star game this morning. With 14 teams and over 240 players, the game featured the top 10% of players in camp. My MVP, on the basis of a pair of quality goals scored, was senior Eric Grisham (#10, Maroon team) of the Washington Blue Jays. One of three senior Blue Jay’s to be included, the District 10 member will look to improve their finish this season despite losing 11 players from last years team. I’ve got an interview with Coach I’ll share with you in August on the Blue Jays.

I put some video’s from the All-Star game up on my YouTube Channel as well. Check them out.

Missouri State Bears High School Boys Team Camp
Back Row, left to right: Matt Calvert, Rolla; Aaron Fournier, Choctaw; Brice McElroy, PC North; Luis Beltran, Conway; Alexis Velasco, Choctaw; Brad Guiles, Kirksville; Roman Gomez, Branson; Bryan Byars, PC North
Front Row: Matt Theis, Ralston; Josh Vanornam, Ralston; Josh Glasscock, Clinton; Dillon Byrd, PC North, Eric Grisham, Washington; Lucas Hess, Stillwater

Missouri State Bears High School Boys Team Camp
Back Row: Jeremy Leulf, Washington; Wes Cummins, Conway; Adam Salas, PC North; Tim Wallace, Washington; Chase Cain, Arkansas; Quinn Mayberry, Kirksville; Noah Vogt, S Boone; EJ Nelson, TCA; Shawn Rhodes, Clinton
Front Row: Joey Carson, Shawnee; Luke Townsend, Shawnee Heights; Nick Johnson, Ralston; John Beckman, Stillwater; Klay Norman, West Plains; Tyler Groh, PC North;

Representing the Southwest Missouri region were the Branson Pirates and All-Star Roman Gomez, the West Plains Zizzers and All-Star Klay Norman, the U14 Rolla Knights represented by Matt Calvert and the Washington Blue Jays with Eric Grisham, Jeremy Leulf and Tim Wallace representing.

High School Schedules – Am I Missing Your Team?

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OK, spent the afternoon Tuesday entering schedules into my High School Calendar and I’m still missing quite a few. The only way I can cover your team is if I have your schedule and can identify games of interest. Please have your Coach or a member of the Booster Club send me the schedule. I need it as a spreadsheet!

If your team IS NOT on this list, then I NEED YOUR SCHEDULE!
Class 3 – Branson Pirates, Camdenton Lakers, Central Bulldogs, Glendale Falcons, Jeff City Jays, Kickapoo Chiefs, Neosho Wildcats, Nixa Eagles, Ozark Tigers, Parkview Vikings, Rolla Bulldogs, Waynesville Tigers
Class 2 – Carl Junction Bulldogs, Logan-Rogersville Wildcats, West Plains Zizzers
Class 1 – Springfield Catholic Irish, Greenwood Blue Jays

Here is a blank spreadsheet you can complete. Download googlecalendar_schedule and complete. Thanks!

Meet The Branson Lady Pirates Soccer Team

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I was able to stop by Branson High School Thursday afternoon after a business meeting and during their photo shoot so the full squad was decked out in the new uniforms. The numbers are high, there were 50 girls who came out and 40 will participate in this first season. They are led by 4 seniors (Susan, Natalie, Emily and Kate) who introduce themselves in this short video.

Coach Dave Brenner
I’ve also got a short audio interview with Coach Dave Brenner with some background on his key positions. District 12 won’t have any pushovers this year is the impression I went away with. BTW, it’s a WAV file which should work in your Windows media player.

Oh, and I’ll have to provide an update later this season on his assistant, a young woman who grew up playing in Northern CA (Vaccaville) before moving here to attend College of the Ozarks. She’s even more excited about the upcoming season and working with the girls than the players are!

This Week in Southwest Missouri Soccer

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Lot’s to get caught up on. First a few shout outs!

Congratulations to the Branson Pirates who won the first game in program history. Their tightly fought match against the Webb City Cardinal’s at this weekends Christian County Tournament ended 3-2 in their favor. Photos courtesy of a Carthage Tiger’s fan who was in attendance.

Speaking of tournaments, the Glendale Falcon’s won the Missouri-Kansas Challenge, going 3-0 while defeating Rural Washburn 2-1 (Kansas Class 6 4th place last season), North Kansas City High School 2-1 and Blue Valley North (Kansas Class 6 State Champs last season) in the Finals 2-0.

The Hickman Kewpies visited Rolla and took the Invitational Tourney title via goal differential, that despite the fact that Tyler Sinnott continues his early season form. Sinnott became Rolla’s all-time scoring leader over the weekend, with 91 career goals, having scored 15 in Rolla’s first 5 games this season. The old record was 87 held by Stephen Williams.

And can’t forget the Missouri State Bears who’s defense came together this weekend, tying #2 Akron 0-0 in their game on Sunday afternoon, and winning the Nike Tournament at New Mexico with a 1-0-1 record. BTW, anyone else annoyed by the video highlight I have to turn off on the MSU Bears website?

And how about them Panther’s eh. Good start to the GLVC season and Steve Wilczewski (Glendale 2006, pictured) is the Male Athlete of the Week for the Panthers. 3 goals and an assist this weekend, 5 goals for the season leads the Panthers. UPDATE – Wilczewski is also the GLVC Player of the Week. W00t!

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OK, onto the week. I’m looking forward to seeing some new High Schools this week as the season progresses and some trends begin to display themselves.
Monday – Willard at Central, Waynesville at Catholic
Tuesday – Rolla at Parkview
Wednesday – West Plains at Central
and more details later, so much to take in!

The Missouri State Bears host Valparaiso on Friday night at Plaster.

And Champions League returns to ESPN this week. Tomorrow features Chelsea FC vs. FC Bordeaux (1:30 pm, ESPN2)from Stamford Bridge while Wednesday will be Real Madrid CF vs. FC Bate Borisov from the Bernabeu (4:00 pm, ESPN Classic)

And please try to refrain from this behaviourhttp://www.kmbc.com/sports/17474546/detail.html#-.

This Week In Southwest Missouri Soccer

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… I hope to complete the 2nd edition of “SGFsoccer.com – The Magazine”. No, I will complete it, although then my designer will need time to do his magic. Look for the download and ordering information this weekend.

In the meantime, I hope the rain holds off so I can sneak down to Branson this evening to catch the historic first game for the Branson Pirates, who are hosting the Logan-Rogersville Wildcats. This will be a Central Ozark Conference battle, between the large school Pirates and the small school Wildcats. The Branson paper offers a preview of the squad, Different Cultures Unite as does the South County Mail as Soccer Finally Comes to LRHS.

In Springfield, there’s an early grudge match as the 2-time defending Class 1 District champion New Covenant Warriors host the Greenwood Blue Jays. I’ve got a 4:30 pm start time for this Varsity-only game. Anyone want to provide a report for the readers after this one?

The Class 2 District Champion Cassville Wildcats open at home today, with the Neosho Wildcats visiting. The runner-up Bolivar Liberators are hosting small school Cole Camp on Wednesday.

The Kickapoo Chiefs, coming off of their trip to the Final 4 last November and the 3rd place finish, will open their season Friday by traveling down Campbell Avenue to Nixa.

There’s a full slate of Ozark Conference games this week and some COC games as well. You can always find the latest on the Soccer Calendar.

On the College front, we’ll see the Missouri State Bears for the first time this weekend. They host their annual early season Tournament with a pair of games on Friday and Saturday.
Friday 5:00 pm – Centenary vs Drake @ MSU
Friday 7:00 pm – MSU hosts Cleveland State
Saturday 5:00 pm – 17:00 Cleveland State vs Drake @ MSU
Saturday 7:00 pm – MSU hosts Centenary

I’m working on getting caught up on the D1 and D2 players and their first weekend, look for that and updates on the others as I try to figure out a model that I can manage. Have you looked at the list of College Players recently!

Branson Pirates Hire Dave Brenner For New Soccer Program

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Nixa Eagles Tie Glendale Falcons Send a shout out to Dave Brenner folks, the gentleman who will lead Branson into the worlds game next August when the Pirates field a boys soccer team for the first time. Dave, who will also coach the girls team that will begin play in the Spring 2009 season, joins the Pirates from the Nixa Eagles where he has been assisting Evan Palmer since the Fall of 2001. The only photo of him I’ve captured however has him focused on the Eagles (he’s on the left) so I’ll rectify that at the next Eagles game I attend.

Dave already has a schedule with 14 games lined up for the Fall, including a weekend trip to Kansas City to take on Cole Camp and Smithton. He pointed to the trip as one of the numerous examples of the steps Branson is taking to embrace and support soccer. The enthusiasm from the community, including a large Hispanic contingent, ensures that he’ll have a good pool of players to work with from the beginning. The initial informational meetings have already happened and summer plans are also being put into place.

Home games will be played at the Jr High School, a bermuda/rye mix that has locker rooms, a press box and the other amenties that come with being the former home of the Pirates football team. The other great news is that there will now be an official Central Ozark Conference title chase to count on with the addition of Carthage, Nesho and Webb City as well as the Pirates.

I asked Nixa Eagles coach Evan Palmer (a former SMSU player) to share his thoughts on Dave:

I can’t give Dave enough praise. He has been a great assistant and will make a great head soccer coach. He already is a great head coach leading the Volley Eagles to a district title last fall. He takes great pride in what he does and will work hard to make Branson a contender. Branson is getting a great addition to their teaching and coaching staffs. Dave and Michelle (his wife) will be missed in the district.

Dave initially worked with the boys and the girls at Nixa but as Evan notes, he took over the volleyball team a few years ago which conflicted with the boys season. He’s been working with the girls soccer team for the entire period.

Dave will teach History at Branson along with his coaching responsibilities. He’s a 1981 Glendale graduate, where he played defense on the club soccer teams at Glendale before it became an official sport. He also played Rugby for SMS, something he picked up as an exchange student in South Africa in 1981, in addition to intramural soccer through college (became a mid-fielder and then a goalie). He continues to play one or two sessions a year in the over thirty indoor league at Lake Country Soccer.

Welcome and congratulations Dave!