MSC Cougars U16 Girls Soccer Team.  Updated May 29, 2007

Age Group:  August 1990-July 1991

Cougars Tryout Information:
Committed Players born after July 31, 1990 are encouraged to try out for our team.   We are looking for committed players for the 2007-2008 WAGS season. We return to WAGS Division 4 in Fall 20007. Defenders and Strikers are of particular interest, but we’ll take the best available players regardless of position.

The Cougars participate in several outdoor tournaments, practice and play through the winter and regularly bring in skills coaches to help our players achieve their potential. We will participate in the a College Showcase Tournament in St. Mary’s county Maryland on June 16-17 that we’d like players serious about joining the Cougars next year to participate in as guest players. We work on developing individual players within a ball-control team framework.

Contact one of the Coaches if you want to try out: cougars@his.com or call Roger Pomeroy (evening: 301 589-3465, day: 202-482-3299. See below for more information on the team & coaches.

See below for a summary of previous seasons.

Tryouts:
Held during our Monday Practices in June 2007 and other times by arrangement. Players may be invited to guest at our June 16/17 College Showcase Tournament in St. Mary’s County, Md. Contact Coaches to arrange a tryout.

Spring 2007 Schedule (Updated May 29, 2007)	Spring 2007 WAGS Standings	Fall 2006 WAGS Standings
Spring 2006 WAGS Standings	Spring 2005 MSI Classic HS Div 1 Standings	Fall 2004 U15 MSI Div 1 Standings
Spring 2004 U16 Div 1 Standings	Fall 2003 U14 Div 1 Standings	Spring 2003 U13 Div 1 Standings
Team History	Fall 2005 HS Div 1 Standings	Fall 2005 Practice Days/Location

Coaches:
Julius Abangma:
USSF C-license
Former Cameroon Junior National Team Player
Former College Player
Former Professional Soccer Player
Youth Soccer Experience:
16+ Years Experience MSI Classic Head Coach (boys & girls) and Skills Coach
Boys Teams 4 times MSI Classic Division 1 Champions
Girls teams: (U12-U15 played up since U14): Div 1 Champs-2, 2^nd place-4, 3^rd place-2, other 1

Roger Pomeroy:
MSI Classic 2004 Coach of the Year, D-license
Phone:  301-589-3465, email cougars@his.com

Chris Shlemon:
D-license, Phone:  301-587-3065, email Shlemon@hotmail.com

Matt Johnson, Phone 301-270-2709

Manager:
Kitty Pomeroy, Phone:  301-589-3465, kitty_Pomeroy@yahoo.com

Other Skills Coaches:

UK Elite: Coach Dean Selvey, Spring 2007 Skills coach on Thursdays.

 
Spring 2007: WAGS Outdoor Results

We are still in a fight for 1^st place in Division 5, trailing the Fury by a point with a game to play—we beat and tied the Fury earlier in the year giving them their only loss and tie of the season. We will return to Division 4 in the Fall based on a 1^st or 2^nd place finish this spring. We are the only team to defeat every other team in the division. We lead the league in defense with 6 shutouts in 8 games and only 2 goals allowed with a game to play. And we’ve won 2/3 of our games with no losses this spring. We’ve played great defense this season—defending and goal keeping have been exceptional, and our switch to a 4 mid field alignment has the mid field closing off longer shots and most shots from the middle without sacrificing any attack—our attack has been better. Including 2 shutout wins in our 3 tournament games in March, our defense has held our opponents scoreless in 8 of 11 games this Spring. Our main focus for the Spring has been mid field play, ball and player movement and attacking. We’ve made great strides since the fall. Playing and practicing futsal during the winter (including the futsal state cup), as well as indoors, improved our 1^st touch and got most of our players looking at the goal. This Spring, we brought in Dean from the UK Elite to run a practice a week to work on mid field play and attacking to great effect, and Julius and our other coaches worked on shooting and attacking in the other practice sesssions. The team looks good, with 7 players already scoring this spring, several players scoring from mid field and our attack developing well, we are well poised to have success next fall in Division 4. The girls have done a great job, increasing our scoring, ball possession and quality chances even having switched to a new formation this Spring. Strong pressure from both strikers and mid field, good ball control and movement, well distributed scoring from many places and great defense—the girls have shown growth both individually and as a team. Great job this Spring!

Indoor 2006-2007 Summary:

The girls showed some of their most marked improvement in years this winter. Ball control, using the bottom of the foot, learning new moves, looking to shoot, playing faster under control—everything we worked on showed remarkable improvement. The Cougars finished a close 2^nd in our Indoor league, going 5-1-1, splitting two games with the 1^st place team, scoring 30+ goals, and playing very fast, ball-control, very attractive, soccer. We also had some success playing futsal, playing in the Md Futsal State Cup, the Good Counsel Tournament as well as our league games in Rockville—thought the girls showed a lot of savvy and heart in all three, playing some excellent futsal. After an injury-riddled fall season, I was impressed at how eager the girls were to learn and improve, often getting 12 players at our indoor practices. Might have been our most productive indoor season ever.

 
Fall 2006: WAGS Outdoor Results

Tough season due to injuries. 4 Starters went down 1^st week of HS play and later our keeper broke her leg—2 players had to have knee surgery, and others were slowed for several games by badly sprained ankles, maybe a concussion. Injuries particularly hurt us against teams we needed to beat early in the season. But I liked the progress our team made over the season adjusting to a more physical, somewhat faster, league. The team learned from the season and improved, better able to pass under pressure. Effort, attitude and attendance was very good, especially with all the girls playing HS soccer, so they played 7 days a week for 3 months. Fortunately, all the girls will come back from their injuries by January indoor and futsal seasons, so the team should be strong for the Spring season.

 
Spring 2006: WAGS Outdoor Results
 

The Cougars had a very successful Spring 2006 WAGS season with a 6-2 record, good for 2^nd place and promotion a higher division. More importantly, the girls improved throughout the season, and the team chemistry was very good. After picking up 6 new players since the Fall 2005 season, the Cougars worked hard to gel as a team. Our defense improved dramatically as the girls got more familiar with each other—after playing well but having a few breakdowns defensively that cost us some tournament games, the team gave up very few chances in WAGS play, really only giving up 5 goals all season (I don’t count the goal the referee erroneously allowed-- didn’t go past the line—in our 1st loss this season). Even 6 goals allowed led the league in scoring defense in a season where luck was against us with a very high percentage of shot against going in this spring (e.g., of four allowed, two were 30 yard shots (prayers) dipping just below the cross bar our goalie had covered but couldn’t quite reach). Our scoring opportunities were increasing game-by-game and we could have easily scored twice as many goals this season with a little better finishing—we probably should have scored 8-10 in our 2-0 win last game. We have scored in all but one of the 16 games we’ve played this Spring, with 10 players scoring so far in outdoor play this Spring. Scoring takes time to develop, so I’m pleased with the team’s progress and expect us to be up to the challenge of Division 4 next Fall, particularly if we can add a player or two to strengthen our defense and/or attack. The team has decent speed, skill, and solid, aggressive players at defense, mid field and the attack. The girls were very supportive of one another and the new players made a big effort to blend in as part of the team. It the kind of team I enjoy coaching. And everyone is chipping in to play defense and the attack as needed,(e.g., our leading scorer is also spending a half most games shutting down the other team’s attack at right defense). Our 4 part time keepers were excellent, making the big save the few times they were needed—think we have some of the better goal keeping in the league BECAUSE they are all excellent field players and very skilled and composed in goal as well. 

 
 
 
2005-2006: Winter Indoor Results:
Ended up in a 3-way tie for 1st with a 7-1 record. Girls probably outplayed
everyone, but somehow managed to lose 4-0 to Catonsville Cobras. The
Catonsville Cobras should have been the champions based on goal differential
(they lost to the 3rd 1st place team, the CSC Comets, a team we absolutely
dominated in a 3-1 win when we played with NO substitutes). A good effort, and
a fun season. Thought everyone played wonderfully at times. After playing U19
teams and WAGS Div 1-3 teams most of the fall, it was a pleasant respite to play
indoors against teams of our age, and we got to see lots of players try out. 
Despite the location being inconvenient for some, I thought the soccerdome was a
nice cross between indoor and Futsal, forcing kids to play on a bigger turf
field with a regular ball, but without dasher boards and having to do throw-ins,
both requiring more control.
 
Hannah, Larissa and Jenny all looked great Saturday in a game not as close as
the 5-1 score. Larissa scored 2 & set up Hannah’s goal. Leslie scored on a
great header that had the goalie cursing (& tossed for a while), and Kim just
missed on a header from a feed by Jenny, I think. Solena put in our 1st goal
with a lovely free kick. Hannah just missed on a number of hard shots. Shelby
and Julia were all over the field, making passes, defending and attacking. 
Jenny “owned the goal” in the 1st half & Leslie & Kim did great in the 2nd. 
 
I appreciate all the kids who chipped in at goal during indoor: Kathy & Leslie
most games, Kim (3 games) and Solena (2 games), Lisa (2) & Jenny—we had good
goal keeping for our indoor games where being a solid field player helps a lot.

Classic Fall 2005 Season, HS Division 1.

Tough Season, playing up against girls often 2-3 years older in MSI’s highest division.

Given the injuries, HS sitouts and conflicts and working in several new players, the girls acquitted themselves well, playing better as the season progressed. Certainly had our chances & probably should had a much better record, but doing even or better in half our games wasn’t bad.

Spring 2005 Outdoor Season Summary:  Slow start, but a terrific performance this Spring.  Finished MSI Season 7-2, playing a year above our age at U15, finishing 2^nd, 1 point behind the 1^st place team.  Lead MSI Classic Girls U15 in scoring.  Almost doubled our goal scoring from the Fall with 26 goals in 9 MSI games—about 3 per game, our 2^nd highest ever.  10 players scored this spring, running to six consecutive outdoor seasons where at least half the team scored.  Even more impressive, 7 players scored multiple goals this Spring.  Our team absolutely dominated play and possession in all our MSI Classic games, even the two we lost.  Every player showed great improvement over last Spring.  We had the strongest, most balanced team ever, where I couldn’t see an appreciable difference between the players I started and their substitutes.  In one game, my substitutes at the start of the game were: Kathy, Claudia, Vanessa, Solena and Tanya—I was thinking my subs might be stronger than the starters and they took over the game when they entered.  In 8 of our 9 games we scored two or more goals, showing consistency rather than fattening our goal scoring statistics with a few blowouts—averaging 3 goals a game in soccer is very impressive and suggests the team may need to find a more competitive league: we’ve never lost more than 2 games in an MSI season and are 39-10-2 over 6 seasons.

The across-the-board superior play allowed me to continue to rotate players between positions to a much larger extent than you’d expect playing at U15, particularly against older players.  Giving up 10 goals is about double what I’d want, but really wasn’t too bad considering every team had forwards faster than any of our defenders, we are a control team playing most games on a very poor field, and I tried all kinds of defender combinations just to get a read on how kids would do (or to move defenders out to allow them to play with time to make decisions).  The one game I played everyone where they could best help the team, against the Explosion, we dominated a team that had given up a single goal in 7 games, knocking them out of 1^st place.  Passing was very good and improved as the season progressed.  Finishing improved throughout the season.  Defense was pretty good, despite my rotating an awful lot of players into positions where stability really does make the team defense stronger.  Goal keeping was the best we’ve ever had—Adrian was amazing.  I’d been pushing the entire team to look to attack & to get back to play defense and mark players.  I felt the team was better at both than ever.  Our team’s outside forwards finally began dropping back to help with the defense most of the time—effectively our team is playing a 4-3-2-1 (4 defense, 3 mid field, 2 attacking mid field, 1 striker); great to see their understanding of soccer is growing.

Every player improved. Getting Leslie back helped us all around, a creative, intense player at the attack and at defense, and a player who is a solid mid fielder as well.  Claudia was also a big help, particularly as the season progressed—she has a wonderful 1^st touch on the ball and protects the ball beautifully.  Claudia’s much better at passing than when she left before--she found her scoring touch in the last half of the season when her knee wasn’t as much of a bother.  Probably as important as getting Claudia and Leslie back, the development of Solena and Allison over the Fall was amazing—both are critical to our team’s improvement.  Solena is capable of playing anywhere and Allison is a candidate for our best player at the difficult center mid field, while also playing good defense and occasionally filling in capably at forward.  

I think nearly all of our players show the commitment I expect.  But seven players on the team stood out over the past year showing very strong dedication to soccer by attending practically every Cougars practice indoors and out, played every tournament and played both seasons of futsal and the indoor league:  Kim, Paige, Adrian, Molly, Kathy, Emily, Solena and Allison. 

The team we had this Spring and the team we have going into the fall is the best team we’ve had.  I think this team is ready to compete at a higher level if the players’ dedication remains high.  We need another goal keeper, preferably a full-time keeper.  A fast outside defender/mid fielder would also be a good addition.  A player like Eryn who is both would be okay, too.

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State Cup Match: April 9:  The girls acquitted themselves well in the state cup game, losing 3-0 to a better team—the WAGS Div 2 Freestate Sharks.  Much of the team played the entire game as we had only 1 sub.  Our goal keeping was very good.  The girls played better in the 2^nd half of the game, particularly on offense, after playing well but a little tentatively in the 1^st half.

Fall 2004 Season:  The Cougars made the final of one tournament & lost a close game in the semi-final our 2^nd tournament.  Overall, our scoring was down, but we scored at least one goal in 7 of 8 MSI games, the other being a 0-0 tie.  Our 3^rd place finish placed us ahead of all of the U15 teams except the Bluehawks (the Mercury, a U14 team took 2^nd place).  Molly was by far the team’s leading scorer with 12 goals overall, 9 in MSI league play.  Molly and Elizabeth, who asked for the team to play up a year at U15, backed up the request by having terrific seasons, being probably our strongest and most consistent players this season.  Both girls were wonderful team players throughout the season and extremely aggressive, never backing down against fast and physical players—excellent leaders on the field.  Like Solena last Spring, our two new players this Fall, Allison and Chelsea, managed to score in their 1^st season with the team and were generally strong contributors to our team.  Linnae, Paige and Vanessa played very well all over the field, particularly on defense, giving us flexibility with their smart, aggressive two-way play all season.  Including tournament play, 13 of our 18 players (including Leslie) scored this season.  Our MSI season result was all the more impressive because our 3 leading scorers from the Spring failed to score in MSI league play this Fall--Kathy, Danielle and Anna netted 13 goals in League play last Spring.   (Far from having poor seasons, those three girls played very well, with all three stepping up big to play defense when the team was still a little intimidated early against the fast, physical U15 players.) 

Aug 28/29:  COUGARS FINALISTS IN DULLES NATIONAL SOCCER TOURNAMENT!

GO COUGARS! 
U 13:  Two-Time Division 1 Champions!
MSI CLASSIC FALL 2003, Spring 2004 Champs!

Tryout Information:
Committed Players born between August 1990 and July 1991 are welcome to try out for our MSI Classic team.  Call to arrange for a tryout. Our team is looking for a goalie as well as strong field players.  Contact one of the Coaches if you want to try out.

Link to MSI Web Site
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