National Sports Center Blog

PAL visit highlights mission of the Herb Brooks Training Center

By Barclay Kruse, NSC Chief Communications Officer

Last week, 29 kids from the Police Athletic League in North Minneapolis ran through a one-hour training session at the Herb Books Training Center (HBTC) at the Schwan Super Rink. HBTC coaches led the drills, suppported by five Minneapolis police officer coaches.

Janet Marvin was in charge of the delegation.

"We skate outside with them 3-4 days a week on the park ice rinks," she said. "We got an invitation to come out here. We'll be here for 10 weeks, until May 29."

The delegation from the Police Athletic League in North Minneapolis takes a break for a team photo during their training session at the Herb Brooks Training Center. (photo by Ron Guild)

Marvin knows her hockey. She grew up as a member of the famous Marvin hockey family in Warroad, Minn. (Her father is Cal ; Gophers' star Gigi Marvin her neice and St. Cloud State forward Aaron her nephew.)

"I don't know if the kids knew what to expect when they came out," Marvin said. "None of them have ever been to this facility. We have a couple kids who have been to the Super Rink itself, but not inside the dry-land training facility. They're having a great time just shooting pucks at the net. I think the end results will help them out as a player, and probably as a person too."

The HBTC hopes the spring program for the PAL is just the first of many community groups that utilize the state-of-the-art facility.

"Part of our mission is to find funding for people who don't have the income to pursue hockey," said Larry Hendrickson, HBTC Program Director. "That was one of Herbie's dreams."

USA CUP is Window to the World

By Colleen Bourdon, Recruiting Director

When I go out to meet teams, parents and players I always tell them that Schwan's USA CUP creates opportunities to meet people, make new friends and sometimes to travel halfway around the world for that reciprocal soccer experience.

In July, 2006 we had a team from Northern Ireland playing in USA CUP. This group brought along Leslie Lynas, who said he wanted to volunteer at USA CUP and that he planned to bring his team to the tournament in 2008 (that is about the right timeline for fundraising for an international team).

Well, it's 2008 and good to his word, Leslie is back. He has registered his team for USA CUP Weekend and Week. Leslie made some friends while he was in Minnesota and has set up a homestay arrangement for his team in Coon Rapids with those contacts.

Here are Leslie's comments about his original visit to USA CUP, the plan for his team and the teams from Coon Rapids....

"In July 2006 I travelled to Minneapolis as a volunteer for USA CUP. My goal was to check out why teams from all over the world would travel to this midwest city to participate in one of the world's largest soccer tournaments. What I found was an event so well organized that every eventuality was catered for. I arrived three days before the tournament was to start and although there was very little happening outside on the pitches, the USA CUP office was buzzing with comings and goings. I was given a tour by tournament director Teri Vogt. Teri told me the history of USA CUP and also took time out to drive me around the NSC pointing out places of interest and giving me a little history about the tournament. I spent the next two days helping around the NSC putting up sponsor banners and helping at gift packing, and on registration day helped out at the team activities station. For the tournaments I was field manager and had a fantastic time watching some very talented boys and girls showing off their soccer skills. The sportsmanship and friendliness of everyone was a delight to watch. I was particularly impressed with the parents of many soccer teams and their sporting appreciation for both teams. To see supporters unpacking their seats and placing them 5-6 feet from the side line was something I had never seen before.

I was equally impressed with the quality of the refereeing, and the professional way they set about officiating each match. I witnessed on a number of occasions more experienced referees explaining to younger, less experienced referees why they made certain decisions on the pitch. It was also interesting to listen to the assessors asking questions about decisions they made during the course of a game.

One of the highlights of my time there was watching the opening ceremony. It was fantastic watching the teams entering the arena wearing their team colours and carrying their flags and banners from their home Countries, states, and soccer clubs. As the evening wore on and the music echoed around the NSC I watched as kids exchanged pins and made the longest samba line I have ever seen.

Armagh City U13 Boys

One of the questions I was asked the most was “why did you come here” and my reply was always the same. “I want to go back to N.Ireland and arrange to bring my team, Armagh City Youth, to America to take part in USA CUP.” So in May 2007 the parents of Armagh city U13s got together to hear me announce that I wanted to take the team over to America to play in one of the world's largest youth soccer tournaments. After showing a DVD and giving the parents as much information as I could they agreed to let the kids attend.

So, on June 29, thirty-five American boys and girls accompanied by about 15 adults will be visiting Armagh as part of an exchange visit with teams from Armagh City Youth F.C.  The Americans consisting of two football teams, one boys and one girls team, are from Coon Rapids Soccer Club, a suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The decision to come to Armagh for their European trip was made following several phone calls and emails between Leslie Lynas and Ian McCallum, Coaching Director for Coon Rapids Youth Soccer Club.  Leslie convinced Ian of the attributes Armagh City and Northern Ireland had to offer, great soccer matches, quality coaches, sightseeing and wonderful people.

During the trip Coon Rapids players stay in Armagh they will be involved in a number of activities in and around the Armagh area.  They will also visit Dublin, Belfast and the north coast taking in the Giants Causeway and Carrick-a-rede Rope Bridge.

On Tuesday July 8, 60 happy Americans will head back to the US.  They will be accompanied by thirty-fvie kids and adults from Armagh City Youth FC. All will be playing in Schwan's USA CUP.

The team  from Armagh City consist of boys from in and around the Armagh area. They have been playing together for four years and have made friendships that will last a lifetime. Armagh City Youth is a relativity young soccer club and its emphasis is on cross-community and multicultural. The team travelling to the US will probably be younger than most of the teams taking part. There is only one 1993 boy in the team, and five 1995 boys. The youngest member of the squad, Robbie was born in 1996. he is presently attending the local Manchester Utd. School of excellence at his own age group. The team also has three of the boys attending County Armagh School of Excellence.

It is likely the Armagh FC team will face opposition from some of the many countries that participate in USA CUP. Friends and families back home can also keep up with daily scores and find out about the tournament with the daily video show, KickTV."

This proves that USA CUP provides many opportunities, don't forget to sign up now and create your team's memories.

Catching the Schwan's USA CUP "bug," Mike Rolfes style

By Barclay Kruse, NSC Chief Communications Officer

Last month, we posted a blog written by Garry Frankel, a long-time Schwan's USA CUP parent and volunteer. In that essay, Garry described USA CUP as an "addiction," a good addiction, that had affected his family for the past six years.

In response we got another fun testamonial from Mike Rolfes, a Schwan's USA CUP volunteer for "every year but the first." Not all of you know Mike by name, but if you've been to the tournament, you would likely recognize him if he walked into the room. He's everywhere on the campus, every day of the tournament, from dawn until well past dark. Few have such passion for the event, a passion he calls "the bug."

Mike says: "I welcome first-time attendees with the warning, 'You are likely to infected by the USA CUP bug, and there is no known cure." And Mike's annual volunteer commitment is evidence that he's caught the bug.

Mike's great joy is to meet old referee friends, who return to the tournament year after year.

"In the early years of USA CUP, I volunteered as a field manager," Mike says. "I would be in the tent making sure the teams and refs showed up. My friendships with referees began in those tents. Now, when flight 43 lands at the airport on Wednesday and a planeload of UK referees get off, I'm there to welcome my old friends."

Mike tells another referee story:

"I was a field manager at a championship game, years ago. It was a younger division, girls. The center ref was a FIFA ref. After the match, both teams, the parents and the refs spent about an hour visiting and taking pictures. (Back then, the field manager passed out medals, and all of that was done at the field.) Back in my field manager tent the AR (assistant referee) asked the center why he, a FIFA ref, had accepted a young division game, when he clearly could have worked one of the older divisions on the stadium field. The older and wiser FIFA ref looked out -- both teams were still gathered -- and said something like, 'Lad, as you look out and see both teams talking, like this was the best day of their lives, everyone content and happy, well you'll never see that with an older team. This is the type of soccer I want to be associated with.'

"My bet is the young ref's view of officiating changed at that moment."

Many of us on staff know that early morning at USA CUP is a special time, and Mike obviously shares that:

"In the early morning, on a clear and sunny day, before the crowds converge on the NSC, sometimes a group of us volunteers go to the top of the stadium to admire the grounds," he writes. "Fifty fields are set for the day, corner flags are out, garbage picked up, sponsor banners flying and lines freshly painted. At the moment, the world is good, we are content, and I'm proud to be a USA CUP volunteer."

Lights, camera, action!

By Barclay Kruse, NSC Chief Communications Officer

Last summer, the National Sports Center tested a brave new project -- video production. At the Schwan's USA CUP soccer tournament in July, KickTV was the daily video journal of the tournament. Interns Tara Durheim and Taylor Kruse put in 16 hour days to produce a new five-minute show every day. And it was undeniably popular, with over 20,000 views to date.

Fresh off the success of KickTV, we've now made the commitment to get into video production in a big way. We've invested in new equipment and staff training. Coming in late March "NSCtv" will be the weekly video journal of everything happening at the NSC -- interviews and stories about the people and events at the NSC. It'll be available to view for free every week on the NSC website. If you play or spectate at the NSC, keep your eyes open for the NSCtv crew. You might even end up on camera!

But even with the premier of NSCtv a month away, the NSC's new video production team has been hard at work. To get warmed up, we're busy producing two special video projects for the Herb Brooks Training Center (HBTC) at the Schwan Super Rink. Last week NSC staffers Greg Hutton, Angie Bertrand, KickTV veteran Tara Durheim and myself went to the Sports Institute in Mankato to shoot footage of the Woodway Blade skating treadmill, a high-tech piece of hockey training equipment that has been purchased by the HBTC and will arrive in April. The Sports Institute is the only location in Minnesota with this amazing piece of equipment, so that's where we had to go to shoot footage.

Above: Greg Hutton and Tara Durheim set up a shot at the Sports Institute in Mankato.

We've also been spending a lot of time at the HBTC taping interviews to use in a promotional video about the facility, and the video team spent the entire weekend editing the footage we had shot.

Above: This is where the hard work of video production happens, in the editing room! Greg Hutton puts his artistic talents to work.

The goal is to finish the video projects so the HBTC can show them at their booth at the Let's Play Hockey Expo, at RiverCentre in Saint Paul, March 7-8. Then, look for us at the Oscars. Just kidding!

And in case you're wondering KickTV will be back for its second season at the 2008 Schwan's USA CUP.