The Staples boys soccer program needs a new junior varsity coach.
Qualifications include a strong knowledge of the game; a desire to pass along passion and enthusiasm to a great group of young players; an appreciation for the Staples boys soccer program’s tradition and values; an understanding of teenagers; a willingness to work hard, and an ability to have fun.
Interested candidates should contact head coach Dan Woog: dwoog@optonline.net.
The 2010 Staples JV soccer team. (Photo by Carl McNair)
Posted in General news
Okay, maybe the headline is a little misleading.
Here’s the press release:
On Monday, July 25, the Guinness world record for most consecutive football (soccer) penalty kicks was set at Major League Soccer’s PK Challenge in Herald Square, New York. The 742 kicks easily surpassed the previous record of 525.
Kyle Martino
Kyle Martino ’99 — former US national team player and current Fox Soccer broadcaster — joined MLS all-stars David Beckham, Thierry Henry, Juan Agudelo and Kyle Beckerman; US women’s national team star Alex Morgan; MLS Commissioner Don Garber, ESPN analyst and former US international Alexi Lalas, and other Manchester United, former World Cup players, New York Red Bulls players, celebrities and local youth soccer players in taking kicks.
Weston soccer enthusiasts were also among the kickers.
No word on how many shooters converted their shots.
Though odds are good that Kyle made his.
The entire 2011 Staples soccer calendar — from the 1st day of tryouts (Saturday, August 27) to the last match of the regular season — is available online.
Matches and training sessions are included for all 3 Wrecker squads: varsity, junior varsity and freshman.
Click the “Calendar” tab at the top of the Staples Soccer.com home page — or here — to see the entire 2011 calendar — and check back often.
(The schedules themselves — without the training calendars — are available through the “This Season” tab at the top of the StaplesSoccer.com home page.)
Last fall, the 2010 team gathered for a pre-season match. The scene will be repeated again -- with a new cast -- soon. (Photo by Lisa Krosse)
Posted in General news
Six former Staples players — Adam Liu ’09, Michael McCarthy ’10, Alan Reiter ’10, Frankie Bergonzi ’11, Greg Gudis ’11 and Brendan Lesch ’11 — are all members of the Beachside Soccer Club team that competes this week in the United Soccer League’s 6th annual Super-20 North American finals.
The 6 comprise fully 1/3 of Beachside’s 18-player roster. The Fairfield County club qualified by finishing 2nd (7-3) in the Mid-Atlantic League.
The 12-team tournament is set for Thursday through Sunday in Tampa. Beachside’s group of 4 includes Lower Merion (PA), Toronto Lynx and North Virginia Royals.
Posted in General news
Because kids hate to read, Tommy Greenwald ’79 has written…a book for them.
Tommy Greenwald '79
Charlie Joe Jackson’s Guide To Not Reading has just been published. Tommy — co-captain of the 1978 state championship team, and father of 1 current and 1 former Staples player — is on a book tour.
The other night, he addressed a large crowd at Westport’s Barnes & Noble.
The book is hilarious. So is the trailer.
A series of non-readers solemnly address the camera.
“I’d rather drop a full-size bowling ball on my toe” than read, one kid intones.
“I’d rather solve the Mideast peace process,” says another.
“I’d rather be grounded for life,” claims one more.
Then comes the next stage — bargaining:
“Don’t make me read!” one pleads.
“Ewwww…gross!” adds another.
Finally, grudging acceptance:
“Is it short?” one kid wants to know.
“Are there actual words in it?” wonders another.
“How much will you pay me to read it?” asks a third.
The trailer ends with this quote from the hero, Charlie Joe Jackson: “If my book inspires just one kid to become a reader…that’s one too many.”
The real Charlie Joe Jackson — Tommy’s 3 kids, including rising junior Joe (a JV player last fall) and former player Charlie, a rising senior — had typical teenage reactions, according to their dad.
They refused to read the book. After much back-and-forth, finally — when Tom told them the main character was named after them — they agreed to look at it.
“They actually really liked it,”Tommy says with pride.
But they haven’t read another book since.
(Charlie Joe Jackson’s Guide to Not Reading is available now — click here.)
Posted in Alumni, Current players
Mark Noonan ’83 was the 1st Staples soccer alum working at Major League Soccer headquarters, as executive vice president for marketing.
Now a pair of teammates — Matt Sych ’07 and Ben King ’07 — are there.
Matt — a recent graduate of the University of Connecticut, where he served as the Huskies’ men’s soccer videographer — is working in MLS’ digital properties division.
Ben — who just graduated from Boston College — is on the business development side, handling corporate partnerships.
The 2011 FCIAC soccer schedule has been released — and it promises to be an exciting fall for the Wreckers.
For the 1st time in several years, each of the 19 FCIAC teams will play 16 league games. Previously, there were only 15 FCIAC matches — meaning each team did not play 3 foes. This year, each squad “misses” only 2. This fall, Staples will not meet Stamford and Bassick.
“16 games makes things a lot more equitable,” Staples head coach Dan Woog says. “On the other hand, because the CIAC allows only 16 regular season matches, we’ve had to end our great out-of-league series with Brookfield.”
The blue-and-whites start the fall season with a very tough match: perennial FCIAC contender Ridgefield.
Near mid-season there’s a challenging stretch of consecutive matches with Norwalk, Trumbull and Greenwich — followed by a brutal end of the regular season. The Wreckers play 7 games in 14 days — including fores like Fairfield Warde, Fairfield Ludlowe, Westhill, New Canaan and Danbury.
There are also 2 Saturday home matches (Sept. 24, 11 a.m. vs. Brien McMahon, and Oct. 15, 4 p.m. against Fairfield Warde). The Warde game may be an “alumni” event, honoring the 40th and 30th anniversaries of the 1971 and ’81 state championship teams, respectively.
“We’re going to have to be ready to hit the ground running with Ridgefield,” Woog says. “And then we’ll have to keep our momentum right to the end. We’ll need to be tough, smart, fit and deep.”
The pre-season schedule has both a familiar look, and a new wrinkle. Scrimmages are set with traditional foes Wethersfield (home on the Friday before Labor Day; then the jamboree 8 days later) and Glastonbury.
But Staples has added traditional powerhouse Newtown as the 1st test of pre-season, along with Bunnell — which returns all 11 starters from last year’s Class L state finalist team.
“I’m excited, and I know our guys are,” Woog says. “It’s only mid-July, but the seniors have already done a great job in terms of leadership. They’re setting the bar high for everyone.”
(The junior varsity and freshman schedules have also been released. Click here — or on the “This Season” tab at the top of www.StaplesSoccer.com — to see them all.)
Posted in General news
The 2nd annual Preston Hirten weekend got off to a great start this morning. Over 40 players — teammates from the Staples 2006 team, the University of Mary Washington and Beachside; many current Wreckers, and 2 who graduated last month — played a round-robin series of games in honor of their friend who died nearly 2 years ago.
Teammates, friends and family of Preston Hirten '07.
The Wakeman turf was the site of some hard-nosed, skillful — but very friendly — competition, with mixed teams. The final match pitted Preston’s former 2006 Staples team against his UMW squad.
Preston’s father, mother and sister Ella were there, along with several ’06 parents.
Congratulations to Matt Lamb ’07 and Dave Sharpe ’07 for organizing the weekend, and thanks to Stuart McCarthy and ChiChi Ogbenta for donating their services as officials.
Next up: a Saturday evening cookout at Compo.
The memorial weekend will continue next year, Matt and Dave promise.
Wreckers James Hickok, Steven Smith and Aaron Liu, and 2 Mary Washington players, take a much-needed break.
Posted in Alumni, Current players
Staples head coach Dan Woog has been named Norwalk Hour Coach of the Year, for all sports in 2010-11, for the paper’s circulation area of Norwalk, Westport, Weston and Wilton. He won the online vote, and was also the choice of the Hour sports staff.
This is the 1st time the Hour has presented such an award.
George Albano’s article — headlined “It’s Woog’s World and All The Wreckers Do Is Win it It” — says:
For more than half a century, Staples High School soccer has stood for
excellence. Another example of that was on display last Thursday.
On the same day it was announced the late Albie Loeffler, the Wreckers’
legendary coach, had been selected for enshrinement into the Fairfield County
Sports Hall of Fame, the current Staples coach, Dan Woog, received a phone
call informing him he had been selected as The Hour’s area Coach of the Year
for the 2010-11 school year.
In fact, just a few hours after getting his news, Woog attended a press
conference in Stamford, announcing the six new Fairfield County Hall of Famers
and spoke on behalf of his former coach, who he remained close friends with
until Loeffler passed away at the age of 93 in September 2009.
There’s no better authority on Staples soccer than Woog, who’s been a part of
the program as a player and coach for 31 years and became only its third
permanent head coach in 2003. He even wrote a book on the history of Staples
soccer titled “Goals and Glory.”
And in his eight years as head coach, he has certainly carried on the tradition
that Loeffler started when he founded the program in 1958 and guided Staples
for the next 20 seasons.
Dan Woog
Last fall, Woog coached the Wreckers to their third straight FCIAC
championship and fourth in the last five years as well as a berth in the Class LL state finals, where they lost 2-1 to Farmington to finish 20-3-1.
But that’s not the only reason Woog was The Hour sports staff’s choice, as well as the leading online vote getter, for the inaugural Coach of the Year honor.
One of the biggest reasons was the fact Woog may have done his best coaching
ever. The 2010 Wreckers graduated half their starters from the 22-2-0 team that won the state championship a year earlier. But that also means half the 2009 starters were returning, placing some lofty expectations on the two-time defending FCIAC champs.
“The expectations were high. The pressure was high,” Woog said. “Another
internal element that was a new trend to kids was committing to college in
their junior year and we had four of those. Four starters had already
committed (to) Notre Dame, Colgate, Columbia and the U.S. Naval Academy.
“So we really had to keep the players focused. They were a high-powered
bunch. They had achieved a lot. They set high standards for themselves. There
was a lot going on with them. Part of the challenge was making them
understand they would be different their senior season and to make their
senior season their own. That was really the challenge.”
When Staples got off to an uncharacteristic 1-2 start, Woog’s worst fears were
realized. His team was letting all the expectations and pressure get to them.
“There was pressure from their themselves,” Woog explained. “There was
pressure from their friends. There was pressure from their parents, from their
teachers and school. There was pressure from the community — tons of
pressure from the community. There was pressure from the media and from
guys they play with on their club teams.
“And that was fine. That’s all part of it. I’m happy to be a frontrunner and have
a target on our back. But at the same time we wanted to help them deal with
it.”
The “we” was Woog and his assistant coaches Kurt Dasbach and Tom Henske, the Wreckers’ keeper coach.
“It’s a great staff and what we did was re-double our philosophy that soccer is a
fun game,” Woog said. “The kids should enjoy every minute that they’re out
there.”
The coaches got their point across. A more relaxed and confident Staples team
would go 19-0-1 in its next 20 games, adding a record 27th FCIAC championship
in the process.
“They didn’t lose another game ’til the state finals,” the Wreckers’ head coach
noted. “We got off to a rocky start. The things we worried about, as much as
we tried to be pro-active and work around them, were coming true. But give all
the credit to the kids. They understood this was not what they wanted. They
understood they were better than that as players and people and they turned
their season around.”
But give Woog and his staff some credit, too. A lot of teams in the same
position may have had an early-season team meeting. The Wreckers’ brain
trust, however, took a different approach.
“We’re not big on meetings,” Woog said. “We want the players to take
responsibility for themselves. We want them to make their own decisions on
the field, not look to us to make them. We want them to not only not be afraid
of making mistakes, but celebrate mistakes and learn. If you make a mistake it
means you tried something. But they were not doing that. They were tense.
They were just not having fun. We talked about the importance of enjoying
what they were doing, reveling in being seniors rather than feel pressure.
“Kurt (Dasbach), Tom (Henske) and I continued to re-double our own effort to
make sure the environment was fun and the players took it from there.”
Woog credits his staff, incuding Kurt Dasbach (above) for much of the Wreckers' success.
In retrospect, as well as Woog knows the game of soccer, as good an X’s and O’s
coach that he is, his best piece of coaching last fall was his ability to get inside his players’ heads.
“It was as much a mental coaching game as anything else,” he agreed. “I’m not a
shouter or a screamer on the sidelines. I don’t jump up and down. That might
lead to short-term results, but not long-term results. I much prefer to have our guys figure things out themselves. It’s much better to make mistakes and learn rather than look at the bench and think you’re going to be subbed for.”
This year’s team was the first time one of Woog’s teams started 1-2 and rebounded to reach the state finals. But it wasn’t the first time he had to take a psychological approach to a season.
“The 2006 team also lost in the state finals to Simsbury,” he said of the
Wreckers’ 2-1 loss in sudden-death overtime. “They were also a very
high-powered team. Different, but high-powered like this year’s team. It’s a
different chemistry every year.”
That was one of the many lessons Woog learned from Loeffler.
“When I was a senior, at the end of my junior year, Albie got our team together
and very famously said ‘The men have gone and the boys have come to play the
game,’ ” Woog recalled. “He had his own challenges to deal with.”
Woog, who refers to himself as “a bench sitter” in high school, was part of a
state championship team at Staples both his junior and senior years in the fall
of 1969 and ’70 under Loeffler.
And although his former coach retired from in 1978 and moved out of state,
Loeffler would become a mentor and close friend to Woog, who returned to
Staples in 1983 as a coach. He directed the JV and freshmen teams for 12 years
before moving up to varsity assistant in 1995 under Jeff Lea, Loeffler’s longtime
assistant.
“Albie was a huge influence on me, and Jeff was, too,” Woog said. “I had two
very positive mentors.”
After eight more years of tutelage under Lea, Woog took over as head coach of
the Staples soccer team in 2003.
“When I got the job, Albie had two pieces of advice,” Woog, who spoke to
Loeffer at least once a month since his retirement, said. “He said never be
surprised by anything any kid does, which is true. I learned that. He also said
hire good people, treat them well and praise them often. He is exactly right.”
Which is why Woog insists on sharing any coaching award that comes his way
with his coaching staff.
Tom Henske also plays a huge role in Staples' achievements.
“I think we have the best coaching staff in the state,” the 2006 FCIAC Coach of the Year, who was inducted into the Connecticut Soccer Hall of Fame in 2000, said. “Each of us has strong, different personalities, but all of us love the game, love the kids, and put them ahead of everything else.
“I learn something new from Kurt and Tom every day,” he added. “Everything we’ve done as a team, I give huge credit to my staff. They make me look good, and I mean that sincerely.”
Now Dan Woog has another honor to share with them and the entire Staples
soccer program, that of being named The Hour’s first Area Coach of the Year.
And to find out the same day it was announced Albie Loeffler, who meant so
much to him, will be getting inducted into the Fairfield County Sports Hall of
Fame, made it all the better.
“It is great,” Woog agreed. “Albie and I are very different people, but I think
both of us believed at the end of the day, when the championships are won and
the plaques are given out, it’s the kids who should parade around the field. They don’t need to see us.
“Albie was never front and center when the players took a lap after winning a
championship. It was always about the kids. All we do as coaches is create the
environment and they take if from there.”
But having Dan Woog a part of that environment certainly helps.
Posted in Alumni, General news
Albie Loeffler — founder of the Staples boys soccer program — is the newest member of the Fairfield County Sports Hall of Fame.
Albie Loeffler
Mr. Loeffler — who died in 2009, 1 day before his 94th birthday — will be inducted at a special dinner on Monday, October 17, at the Hyatt Regency Greenwich. Five other figures, including longtime NBA player John Bagley, NBA official Bennett Salvatore and Harding High School basketball coach Charlie Bentley, will also be honored. Mr. Loeffler has a hoops connection with them: In addition to soccer, he coached basketball (and baseball and track) at Staples.
Mr. Loeffler began his physical education teaching career at Staples in 1952 — following 10 years at Ellsworth Memorial High School, where he won state championships in soccer and basketball.
In 1957 — after 5 years at Staples — he heeded the requests of several students who had played soccer in elementary and junior high school to form a high school team. Mr. Loeffler — who grew up in Bloomfield — had been a goalkeeper at the University of Connecticut in the 1930s. The club team became a varsity squad the following year.
He retired in 1978 with a then-national record 314 wins. His teams won 13 FCIAC championships — including 5 in a row — and 7 state titles (including a then-national record 5 in a row). Over 100 of his players went on to play college soccer; many became captains, and several enjoyed professional careers.
When Mr. Loeffler retired, he was a 2-time National Coach of the Year. His teams had recorded 25 consecutive shutouts; gone 43 straight games without a loss; lost just 2 home games in the entire stretch between 1965 and 1975 (including post-season play) — and won the division championship every single year.
Albie Loeffler at practice.
Mr. Loeffler is a member of the United States Soccer Hall of Fame as a referee. One of the premier soccer officials in the nation, he refereed the 1st-ever 2-man system college game, as well as the very 1st NCAA Division I finals, and co-wrote the national soccer officials’ handbook.
In 1998 the Staples soccer field was named Albie Loeffler Field. The following year he became one of the 13 inaugural members of the Connecticut Soccer Hall of Fame.
The Fairfield County Sports Hall of Fame is located at the University of Connecticut-Stamford. Previous inductees include Kristine Lilly, Calvin Murphy, Steve Young, Bobby Valentine, Mo Vaughn, Dorothy Hamill, Bruce Jenner, Bill Toomey, Joan Joyce and Ralph King.
(Click below for a video of current head coach Dan Woog discussing Mr. Loeffler at the Fairfield County Sports Hall of Fame press conference.)
