Ela Soccer Club

The 2008 USASA National Soccer Cup Finals were held recently in Seattle. The best men’s and women’s U23, Over 30, Amateur and Open teams from around the country met at Starfire Stadium for National playoffs.

Representing U23 men for Illinois was Lake Zurich’s Ela Elite. To qualify Ela Elite won the Illinois State Cup and the Region 2 State Cup finals this summer. Ela Elite also won the Schwaben, Green & White, and Lake Forest FC23 tournaments held in June and July.

In Seattle, Ela Elite beat the Philadelphia Junior Lone Stars 3-0 in the semifinals and then won 3-0 against the Arizona Sahuaros to become the 2008 U23 National Champions.  Congratulations to the team and its coaches Robert Meschbach and Eric Kuehl.

Team members are Mike Armour (Warren), Brian Byrne (Buffalo Grove), Matt Carlson (CT), Jeff Degroot (Prospect), Nick Gauna (Evanston),  Andrew Graham (Glenbrook North), Jordan Gyuricza (St Viator), Kevin Harrigan (Downers Grove South), Steve Hosch (Danville), Erik Johnson (Libertyville), Steffen Jovcic (Niles West), Thomas J King (St Viator), John Kornfeld (St Louis Univ. HS), Erik Lundgren (Stevenson), Tom Lynn (Libertyville), Justin McCord (Prairie Ridge), Cosimo Patano (Leyden), Frank Patano (Leyden), Paul Pedtke (Evanston) , Mike Richter (Carmel), Jeremy Rielly (Evanston), Nick Rizzo (Weaton St Francis), Karl Ruter (Glenbrook South),  Andrew Stewart (Stevenson), Steffen Vroom (Libertyville), Matt Zelensek (Oswego), Elie Zenner (Evanston).
 

Our Ela Elite U18 gals just won’t take a summer break.  They represented us at the FC Milwaukee tournament August 15th – 17th, bringing home silver in the Women’s U19 Gold bracket division.

Although they remained toe to toe the first half against the 5 time state champions, FC Milwaukee, they were defeated by a single goal in the second half (1-0).

They arrived  at the games short-handed.  Earlier in the week they lost Michelle Rowley (Mundelein HS), one of their starting defenders, to a broken collarbone.    In addition, due to summer commitments, some players were unable to compete.  However, the team played the hand they were dealt and did an outstanding job with the talent that they did bring to Milwaukee.

With only 12 players, this first year team won Saturday (4-0) against MYSC Blue (Milwaukee).  They did not show any signs of weakness when they won their second game (2-0) against the Waukesha Freedom (ranked 3rd in Wisconsin), this time covering the field with only 10 players. 

13 players on Sunday were enough to tie (1-1) the NSA Premier Tigers (ranked 3rd in Illinois).  It was an especially sweet victory because they had lost to them (4-0) just two weeks prior in Muscatine.  Even with a tie, their calculated goal differential was enough to win the bracket. 

They shutout the Rockford Dactyls (2-0), in the semi-finals, which dropped them into the championship game against FC Milwaukee.

The Ela organization congratulates the U18 team for their hard work and determination.  They overcame their  obstacles and were rewarded with some mighty sweet success.
 

The Team

Kelsey Armour  (Warren Twnshp HS)
Katie Budd  (Antioch HS)
Kim Carroll  (Mundelein HS)
Abby Eckstrom  (Mundelein HS)
Ashley Gustafson  (Cary Grove HS)
Alex Hauser  (Carmel HS)
Megan LeBaron  (Grayslake Central HS)
Jenny Miranda  (Mundelein HS)
Maddie Ogrinc  (Carmel HS)
Liz Perrenot  (Carmel HS)
Michelle Rowley  (Mundelein HS)
Natalie Saunders  (Niles North HS)
Kelly Schoen  (Carmel HS)
 

 As the 2007/2008 soccer season was winding down, the U18 boys cranked it up and competed in the State Cup Finals June 7 and 8th. They kicked their way into the finals with some impressive wins against these top state elite teams:

Opponent             Score

Eclipse Select         3-2

Galaxy Blue            4-0

FC Chicago            4-3

The team took second in the final game against FC United. Coach Matty Hamnett has been the team trainer since the majority of the juniors were 13 years old. Almost all of the players have come through the Ela program. Expect this young team to rally again next year. Although six have now graduated high school, the remaining team is strong and ready for another successful year.

According to Got Soccer’s rankings, the U18 team is ranked 4th in the state and 23rd in Region II. From June 20th to June 22nd, the remaining U-17 (Juniors and Sophomore) team participated in a college Showcase Tournament in Kalamazoo Michigan, coming away with the 1st place trophy.

Congratulations to the team and coach Matty for an outstanding season!

2007/2008 High School Seniors
Reid Bergstrom         LZHS
Bobby Gas              Carmel
Zac Khoshbin           LZHS
Edwin Lagunas         Carmel
Justin Pennino          LZHS
Erich Rojek              LZHS

2007/2008 High School Juniors
Ryan Duffey            Stevenson
Ryan Loris               Stevenson
Andy Lynch             LZHS
Brad McCurley          LZHS
Mike Osmera            Warren
Jeff Owens              LZHS
Brady Rein               LZHS
Jake Schauer           LZHS
Drew Wycoff           Carmel

2007/2008 High School Sophomores
Brett Harper             LZHS

Recently Ela Soccer entered into an agreement with Woody’s Restaurants to provide concessions at Heritage Oaks Fields.  The concession stand is located between all the fields, near the parking lot, at Heritage Oaks.  Woody’s provides many services at the concession stand to our program, with a percentage of the revenue generated to be returned to the club.   Some of the items sold at the concession stand include:

• Pizza
• Hot Dogs
• Pretzels
• Nachos
• Gatorade
• Water
• Bratwurst
• Polish Sausage
• Gum and Candy
• Ice Cream

The concession stand also provides ample space for team parties, birthday parties, and team meetings.  Woody’s also has a token program, which greatly benefits Ela Soccer.  Instead of our parents purchasing snacks at a local store for the team after the game, parents would purchase tokens from Woody’s to hand out to the team for items at the concession stand.  Download token program form.

Proceeds from the concession stand will be used to fund important Ela Soccer programs such as field development and maintenance, and marketing of our club.  Most importantly though, programs such as this continue to assist Ela in keeping our fees down as much as possible.

As always, we here at Ela thank you for your continued support of our program.

Sincerely,

Mike Montemayor
Vice President Travel
Ela Soccer Club

 The primary purpose of the program is to develop sources of funding for the club, separate from fundraising events primarily involving members from the club, like the Ela dance.  In exchange for cash contributions to Ela, the limited number of corporate partners will be afforded enhanced exposure on our web site as well as exposure on all Ela printed and electronic material that goes out to the club.  The partners will also be allowed to provide promotional offers for discounted goods and services or other items of benefit to our members through direct mailings.  The marketing partnerships will be a win-win arrangement for both Ela and the partner in that our members will be receiving discounted goods/services, Ela will be getting more exposure in our community through press releases and co-branding by the sponsors, and of course, Ela will be receiving much needed cash on a predictable basis year in and year out.  The partners benefit from increased exposure to the community through our members, by having the Ela name associated with their company and by the potential increase in business traffic from our members. 

For the Corporate Marketing Partnership Program to be successful it requires your support.  As I said in my first letter to the club it is important that we support our business sponsors so that they see a benefit from their contributions.  Like all of you we get a significant amount of “junk mail” at home.  To differentiate the offerings from our partners, the mailings will be co-branded with the Ela logo to identify them.  Please take the time to open them and at least determine if the services offered are of value to you or others you know.  The content and frequency of the promotional offers will be reviewed and approved by our fundraising committee before going out to the club.  However, if you get something you don’t like, let us know about it and we will work with our partners to adjust their offerings.  If you do find something useful, please remind the corporate sponsor that you are spending your money with them because of their support for the club.  The partnership program is a work in progress and your input is valued.

The importance of corporate funding to the club cannot be understated.  Beginning this fiscal year the club is for the first time being asked to pay to use many of the fields we have used for free in the past.  Costs for gasoline, fertilizer, labor, water, etc. are rising significantly and directly impact our operating budget.  Without funding programs like our Corporate Marketing Partnership Program 100% of these costs will need to get passed along to our members as fee increases.  Our goal with our various corporate funding programs is to raise enough money to limit the effects of these cost increases to a minimum while still improving the quality of our program year in and year out.  
 

Steve Morell
President
Ela Soccer Club