Artice 1 Opening Weekend Success!
Five Legend teams participated in the Kansas City Legends tournament held in Topeka on August 9th/10th. They included the U10 girls (playing U11 age group), the U13 girls, U14 girls, U15 girls, and U17 girls. Despite the weather and Saturday afternoon rain cancellations the tournament results showed how far the Legend program has improved in only it's second year. The U10 Thunderbolt girls played skilled and physical and improved by leaps in bounds playing older competition their first weekend together. The U13 Tornado girls finished the tournament with a 1-1-2 record with moments of wonderful play. The U17 Ballistic girls were the victims of the cancellations unable to play one of the teams that made the finals on points, but still showed a strong offensive outing with 8 goals for and 3 against. The highlights of the weekend were the U14 and U15 squads. The U14 Legend Aftershock team played their way into the finals with a 2-1 record in pool play. The faced a cross town rival, Prodigy Extreme in the final. The game was back and forth going into overtime 1-1, where a golden goal in the second overtime period gave Prodigy the hard fought victory. Lastly, the U15 Legend Strikers went 3-0 in pool play (KCFC, KC Legends, Magpies) and maintained a decisive 3-1 victory in the finals over the Nebraska/Omaha Magpies. This team seemd to come into the season playing a high level of soccer, it was a wonderful start for an extremely talented group of girls.
Artice 2 Topeka Legends- 2008/2009
As of July 15th, 2008 the Topeka Legends inaugural season came to an end. The Legends had several simple goals during this initial year which included; establishing a clear cut style of play for all teams within the club, provide a quality summer camp, attract new teams and players, start a boys Legend side, develop an academy program, and retain our players based on their approval of our philosophy.
At the start of this fall 2008 season the Topeka Legends have expanded to seven girls teams, and added our first boys team (U11 Arsenal). They have also added two recreational academy teams for developmental training.
In June the Legends held their inaugural summer camp with the goal of attracting 35 players to the event. The Legends had 62 camp participants from a variety of clubs in and outside the Topeka area.
Lastly, the Legends had a 97% rate of return of previously rostered players during the 2007/2008 seasonal year.
Every goal the Legends set for the inaugural season was either met and/or surpassed. This was a concrete beginning to a club that has established its foundation based on development of the youth player at the forefront.
Article 3 Topeka Legends- New goals, new looks, new faces…
As in year one the Topeka Legend staff has set a number of goals to attain in our second year of existence in the Topeka area. Many of the goals in pertaining to attracting and maintaining our players will remain the same. However we will begin to try and provide new challenges to aid the development of our players.
Our teams will continue to participate in Heartland Soccer League. The initial goal is to have our Legend teams compete weekly against top Kansas City teams. The long term goal is to use this league as a vehicle to prepare our teams for Kansas State Cup participation in the spring. We have based this decision as last year Topeka was represented by one team in the State Cup event; it is our goal to change that trend. Realistically, we are not predicting State Cup championship, but we are willing to take the risk and begin to develop our player’s mentality, as well as physical skills, to believe they can compete at the highest levels.
With the growth of our club we have hired new trainers with a “stacked” trainer philosophy- the first time used in the Topeka area. Our new trainers include Jon Vogel, Heather Austin, and Aubrey Hirsch. The Legends have retained services from Jessica Barranco (high school representative) and Al Barranco (now assistant director). Jon, Heather, and Aubrey all played under coaching director, Tony Greco during their youth careers. They bring to the table a variety of strengths, college degrees, teaching backgrounds, and maturity. Most importantly they were hired based on their beliefs of developing youth players above all else.
The stacked trainer approach very simply is as follows; each team will have not one, but two (sometimes three) different trainers overseeing a practice and game. This cohesive approach allows the Legends to pool players for showcase events, insure all teams are being trained in the same manner, and most importantly having veteran trainers working with new trainers to demonstrate solid practice management. Too many times club teams share a name, play a different style, and little to no communication takes place between coaches. The Legends feel that this “stacked” approach provides a “true” club atmosphere and it mirrors many top clubs in the nation.
The Topeka Legend U10-U14 teams will be wearing adidas/onore uniforms this season. The high school teams have earned the right to wear unique style uniforms but all teams will be sporting the white and royal blue, the official Topeka Legend colors.
