IF FIRST YOU DON'T SUCCEED....

It was a battle of the Notre Dame's as Notre Dame (St. Louis) faced last years state finalist and Harrisonville district nemesis, Notre Dame de Sion in the Missouri Class I Soccer Championships today in Fenton, MO. Sion won the Championship 2-1.

Check out the full championship bracket by clicking here.

SOCCER AWARDS

I got an update on the soccer awards. They will be held Tuesday night at 6:00 PM at the Harrisonville Middle School Cafeteria. See you there.

US SOCCER GOING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION

I found a great article today on US Soccer's move to development academies to train young soccer players, a copy of a successful european program. While it currently is only for young boys and men, I think it is a sign that we are moving in the right direction; away from win at all cost and towards player development. A good read.

Read the full story HERE.

AWARDS BANQUET TUESDAY NIGHT

I'm told there will be an awards banquet Tuesday night but I don't have any details beyond that. Hope to see you all there.

A FEW MORE OF THE GUESS WHO

GUESS WHO?

Guess who?

Found these while searching through an old backup drive. Seems like yesterday and forever ago at the same time.

If you would like to send me more embarrasingly young photos of your soccer stars, my email is ksumner11@embarqmail.com. I'll post em here. :-) Great season Ladies!

CATS IN THE NEWS

District Championship Game makes the Democrat Missourian. Click HERE for the full story.

ANOTHER VIDEO FROM THE CUTTING ROOM FLOOR

I've pulled another video slideshow from the cutting room floor that is longer and includes pictures from the JV squad as well. Enjoy!

CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOU GUYS NEXT YEAR

I've been trying to piece together a photo slideshow for awards. It will include both JV and Varsity. I'm trying out two or three different songs but I'll only pick one for the banquet. Here is one I did just playing around with the varsity photos. Enjoy!

JV SEASON POINTS TO A BRIGHT FUTURE

I want to take a moment to congratulate the JV girls on a fabulous season this year. By my spotty count (I made most of but not all games), they ended the season with 5 wins, 2 losses and 5 ties while outscoring their opponents 15-9.The defensive unit posted an amazing six shut-outs. Great job ladies!!!

I'll update this if I can get the full stats from Coach Coleman in the next couple of weeks.

THAT IS ALL I GOT!

All of the game pictures for the entire season are up on the photo album site (click here). I just looked at the entire directory of pictures I have on my PC and we took over 2900 photos this season, requiring 10 Gig of disk space. Holy Smoke! I was wondering why I had a callous on my index finger. :-)

I will be posting the pictures we put together for the varsity girls lockers on there and I need to do the same for the JV girls. I'm putting together a slide show for the awards banquet and I'll drop that online at YouTube as well.

I have had a blast shooting out there. It is a challenge that I have always enjoyed.

WHEN I'M RIGHT I'M RIGHT THOUGH

It seems that Smithville did indeed beat Kearney as I predicted earlier this week. There is no score posted for that game but what we do know is that Smithville (20-4) will now face Notre Dame de Sion (12-7-1)on Tuesday here in Harrisonville for Sectionals. Don't let the records fool ya. Sion carried a much tougher schedule through the season and will likely beat Smithville 3-1.....at least that's what I predict.

WILDCATS MAKE THE DEMOCRAT BUT NO LINK ONLINE

The team earned a sweet half page story with pictures in the Democrat Missourian today covering their win over Center and Barstow. Unfortunately no link on the web site to point to so you'll have to pay the 50 cents and kill a tree too. :-)

PICTURES FROM BARSTOW AND DE SION GAMES

I've been a little slow to upload pictures lately. De Sion is uploading as we speak and Barstow will be up tomorrow. I did get some shots of the ball boys and girls so for any new parents out there, there is a Wildcat Photo Album link at the right side of this blog. Click on that and then enter the de Sion sub album. They sure are cute.

LOCAL CLASS 1 DIVISION RESULTS

Edit: I've been wrong before and this is one of those times. It seems that Sedalia's district is lagging ours in their schedule. Sedalia's game vs Rock Bridge must have been a semi-final game as they just posted Smith Cotton's 1-0 loss to Jeff City. Jeff City will go on to face Incarnate Word in Sectionals.

Original post: In other soccer news, Sedalia Smith Cotton has won the Class 1 District 10 Championship by beating Rock Bridge 2-0 and will play #1 ranked Incarnate Word Academy (17-2-1) in Sectionals at Hickman High School in Columbia, MO on 5/20 at 6:00 PM.

WILDCATS TAKE SECOND IN DISTRICT PLAY

The Harrisonville Wildcats made a deep run into the district championships tonight falling to 2007 state finalist Notre Dame de Sion 6-1 in the championship game. While I'm disappointed that their season is ending, I can hardly express how proud I am of these ladies in what many would have considered a rebuilding year. I look forward to the next three years my own daughters have to play with the knowledge that this team will continue to wow the crowd with their teamwork and athletic prowess. Well done ladies; well done!

DISTRICT CHAMPIONSHIP PICTURES

Jaclyn pressuring the ball.

HARRISONVILLE SOCCER CLUB SUPPORTS THE WILDCATS

I'd like to thank all the Harrisonville Soccer Club players who came out tonight to support the ladies as they competed in the District Championship. It meant a lot to the girls. Here are a few of these guys kicking a ball around during the halftime. Thank you all. You put a smile on everyone's face.

LOOKING AHEAD

I don't want to turn focus away from the task at hand but thought there would be no harm in highlighting some recent District 13 results that could determine who tonight's victor will face in the Sectional Championship Game next Tuesday in Harrisonville. Kearney took Warrensburg out in a narrow 2-1 game on Tuesday. They will face Smithville in the District 13 Championship Game after Smithville soundly defeated St. Paul 5-0. I'm sure Smithville is breathing a collective sigh of relief as Warrensburg shared their 14 place ranking in the state while Kearney received nary one vote in the most recent (May 1st) MO Coach poll. I predict Smithville will take this one. It just goes to show you that polls mean nothing and any team can win if it they seize the day. CARPE DEIM!

VICTORY DANCE

ON TO THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

The Cats won their second round District Championship game tonight with an exciting double overtime nail biter vs third seeded Barstow. Barstow scored late in the first half and commanded possession but Harrisonville was far from done for the evening.

Not only did the defense shut down Barstow for the remainder of the game, the Cats took back control of their passing game in the second half and it wasn't long before a Kayla Birchfield shot found the back of the goal and brought the game even. With momentum in their favor, the Cats pressed the attack but failed to finish Barstow off. Their relentless attack continued through first one and then a second overtime when a Barstow own-goal ended the match with a well deserved Wildcat win.

2007 Class 1 State Finalist Notre Dame deSion faced O'Hara in the other District Championship play tonight with deSion coming out victorious 2-0 to face Harrisonville on Wednesday night at 5:00 PM.

Come on out and cheer on your Harrisonville Wildcat Soccer Team! GO CATS!!

WILDCAT VS CENTER GOALS VIDEO

I've uploaded an edited video of goals and a couple of near goals from the first round of the District playoffs. Judith didn't catch all of the goals from the 10-0 Wildcat win but she got most of them. Enjoy!

HELPING HANDS

This season took a lot of work and not just from our fine players. In addition to our amazing Coach Dan Coleman pictured below, I'd like to take a second to recognize some helping hands that made a huge difference this season. Coach Ryan Cook and assistant Annie Sevey and also Team Manager Philip Freeman. Great job everyone.

DISTRICT PLAY BEGINS WITH A 10-0 WIN VS CENTER

The Wildcats were seeded 2nd in District playoff. They faced 7th seeded Center High School in the opening round of play. The Wildcats pressed forward from the opening whistle with the first shot on goal falling within the first minute of play. What followed was a barrage of shots from what seemed like every player and every position on the field. The score was 8-0 Wildcats at the half and the Cats invoked the mercy rule at 10-0 soon after the second half started. Well done ladies.

Other District play included Barstow beating Clinton 7-0, Notre Dame de Sion vs Ruskin 16-0 and O'Hara over Lee's Summit Christian Academy 5-3. Notre Dame is set to face O'Hara Monday at 4:30 while the the Wildcats begin second round play with a game vs 3rd seeded Barstow at 6:30 PM on the Harrisonville turf field.

I chose a poor setting on the camera with the overcast and rain Saturday afternoon but fixed the problem after the first ten minutes of play. Sorry for some of the poor pictures during that time. I was pleased with the excellent contrast (due in part to our wonderful weather) I got after fixing the shutter speed in all the pictures thereafter. Hope you like em. Pictures will be downloading overnight so be patient.

WILDCATS IN THE NEWS

Link to the story on the 4-0 victory vs Belton in the Democrat Missourian can be found HERE.

I'M NOT FINISHED GOOFIN WITH THESE PICTURES YET

I just wanted to let you guys know I'm just starting to put together these compilations and I'm not done yet. I want to make sure everyone is represented on there but I haven't found the perfect format yet. I'll keep posting them as I go along. I dropped the two you see here on the "Best" folder of the photo album online. They will fit on an 8x10 in case you are interested in getting prints.

JV Compilation

AZAREL CHAVEZ ON SENIOR NIGHT

Azarel "Auz" Chavez was soaking up the limelight Monday night on Harrisonville's Senior Recognition Night. Good luck in all that you do Auz!

BELTON AND PEMBROKE PICTURES

I've been a little slow lately to post pictures. Judith has been hogging the computer so I'll have some new stuff up in the next couple of days. Here are a couple from Pembroke and Belton to wet your appetite.

CATS FALL TO RAYTOWN

The Wildcats suffered a dissappointing loss to Raytown tonight in a 0-6 blowout. Raytown came off a bruising loss on Monday night and played Harrisonville as if the championship was on the line in front of their home town "senior night" crowd and it paid off with dividends as the Cats were challenged at every touch of the ball on every square inch of the field.

The Cats look to their last regular season game on Thursday to shore up their defensive strategy as they head to district competition next week at home.

The JV stepped up their game and came away with a hard fought 1-1 tie for the evening as Holly Harris scored her third goal of the season off a corner kick from Jaclyn Sumner.

O'HARA PICTURE

AJ Celebrates with teammates after her second goal of the evening.

CATS FALL TO OHARA ON THE ROAD

The Wildcats fell to O'Hara 2-3 on the road tonight in a close game that went to sudden-death overtime. It was back and forth all game with most of the possession going to Harrisonville. O'Hara scored early in the first half but AJ Erickson rallied the team back soon after bring the game even on a perfectly struck place kick from well outside the penalty box.

AJ teamed up with fellow freshman, Karson Wilson for a second goal just minutes before the end of the first half. O'Hara was able to take advantage of some attacking runs in the second half and brought the game back 2-2, sending the game in to overtime.

The Cats controlled the overtime period and had many chances but O'Hara was able to capitalize on the one shot on goal they got and ended the game as the sky began to look dark and ominous.

The JV game got a good 24 minutes in before lightning on the horizon concerned the refs enough to end it in a 0-0 draw.

This was a hard fought game. O'Hara plays a rough and tumble defense and isn't afraid to lay on some hits when trying to gain possession. Coming off their win against this same team at home, I think the girls did well and I think it was one of the best games they have played against a tough team on a natural grass field. Great job ladies. Keep up the good work.