Many Contributed To

Soccer Tourney Success

To the Editor,

With the completion of the 18th Annual Newtown Soccer Club’s Kick Off Tournament, held Memorial Day Weekend, many hands need to be shaken, efforts rewarded, and congratulations bestowed.

In 1983 the Newtown Soccer Club hosted its first Tournament with 32 teams competing. Since then, the Kick Off Tournament has become the premier spring event for soccer clubs throughout all of New England and beyond. This year the soccer club hosted a total of 100 teams; 90 teams visiting from CT, NY, RI, MA, and NH played along with 10 Newtown Travel teams. Both boys and girls played in all age groups ranging from Under 10 to Under 14. Division games began Friday night and ended with finals on Sunday afternoon. In all divisions, 1st and 2nd place teams received trophies presented by club board members.

The Newtown Soccer Club’s continued support and training of our youth proved successful as the club boasted four teams advancing to tournament finals. The U-14 Strikers won their fourth title and the U-12 Rockets won their second consecutive title while both the U-13 Knockouts and the U-13 United earned Runner-up trophies. Although unofficial, due to Connecticut Junior Soccer Association rules that Under 10 teams are noncompetitive in tournament play, the U-10 Vipers were undefeated in their division. We congratulate the coaches and players from these teams and all the Newtown teams. Win or lose, your support and cooperation with the tournament are greatly appreciated.

Countless hours have gone into the planning and organization of this year’s tournament and many individuals made many sacrifices to ensure things ran smoothly. Your dedication and continued support are appreciated more than we can say. We would like to extend our sincere gratitude to Newtown Soccer Club President and tournament advisor, Al Helfer. To past tournament directors and this year’s advisors Pat Barczak, Joanne Sphunt, Kim Weber, Keith Miller, Jeff Wolcott, and Mimi Moran, you were a constant source of wisdom, experience, and knowledge and we thank you for all your help and encouragement. Anne Brennan, the managing and planning of the referees were outstanding and we thank you. Leslie Konnecker, your energetic and enthusiastic efforts were glorified with an outstanding number of advertisements and we thank you. Anne Brennan and George Peters, you both handled base operations superbly. Thank you for spending so many long hours at Treadwell. Keith Miller, your efforts with our faultless communication system are greatly appreciated. Thank you so much for all your help and to Debbie Miller for organizing the post tournament party at Treadwell. Jeff Wolcott, we would have been lost without your field knowledge and all your hard work preparing and maintaining the fields all weekend long. Cheryl Clark and Joanne Shpunt, you did a fantastic job organizing the field managers… never an easy task and we thank you. Sheila Stickles, registration ran very smoothly and we thank you for all your efforts. We thank Mary Pat Frobey for the delicious refreshments at registration and for her pre and during tournament support. Thank you Candice Davies and Tony Kallivrousis for organizing the tournament tee-shirt and program book sales. To Judd Doyle, Gary and Jennifer Ober, Karen Klein, Jeff Hanson, Frank Scheurell, and Kaki Taylor, to our twelve team representatives and our eleven team advertising coordinators and to the more than 150 individuals who sold tee-shirts, registered teams, lined the fields, collected garbage, recorded meeting minutes, kept score, typed, ordered tents, made signs, sold advertisements, and managed the fields and a multitude of other tasks, some not so glamorous (port-o-let coordinator), we would not have been able to host a successful tournament without each and every one of you. Your energy, enthusiasm, and tireless involvement are extremely appreciated.

To Phil Keane, your designs for the tournament tee-shirt, program book, medals, and patches were admired by all. We truly appreciate all of your hard work and we hope you are seeing as many of your tee-shirts around town as we are. Special thanks to Scott and Barrett Anders, who organized the MLS dribble, pass and shoot competition on Sunday afternoon. Your efforts enhanced the Tournament and we are so pleased it was a success.

With 13 fields being used during the Tournament, the Parks and Recreation Department, the High School, Hawley School, Middle School, St Rose Church, Fairfield Hills, and Kendro Laboratory Products all need to be thanked for their continued support and generosity. To all of the local stores and businesses that helped sponsor the Kick Off Tournament Program guide with advertisements and donations, we thank you. To our vendors, Soccer Extreme, Soccer Post, Pop Warner Football, the River Cone, The Family Counseling Center and the Boy Scouts, thank you for being a part of our Tournament and we hope sales were a success. Special thanks to Dunkin Donuts for donating 600 cups of coffee and dozens of doughnuts for the weekend.

Lastly, to all of the coaches, parents, brothers, sisters, and friends of the Newtown Soccer Club who helped throughout the weekend, we appreciate your participation, in whatever form it may have been, more than we can say. We truly hope the weekend was as satisfying, memorable, and enjoyable for you as it was for us. Our heartfelt thanks go out to all and best wishes and congratulations to everyone for a job well done.

Thank you

2000 Co-Directors

Stephanie Gaston & Lori Hoagland

18 Main St, Newtown                           June 6, 2000