2023 Spring Season Recap
The end of school is near and the weather is turning to summer, which is a far cry from most of our weather through the Spring Season. But the cold, wet, and dark nights in April led to some great soccer into May, landing all but two of our teams in the quarterfinals.
Our 1st - 4th Grade teams participated in the second season of the St. Linus Spring Soccer League. The league consisted of teams from Saints Barnabas, Linus, Alexander, Walter/Benedict, and Gerald and consisted of a 10-game regular season and a 1-week playoff bracket. In the first round of the playoffs, both 3rd/4th Red and 1st/2nd Red scored playoff victories to advance to the quarterfinals, however each team either lost to the eventual champion or to the team that lost to the champion. Thanks to each of our Spring Coaches for weathering, pun intended, the season. We look forward to participating with St. Linus again next Spring.
After a run to the semifinals last spring season, the JV team nearly repeated that performance with a quarterfinal loss to St. Nicks, who eventually lost to the number 1 overall seed that only gave up one goal all year - the finals are Saturday. Coaches Krabbe and Rivero joined forces with the Varsity team this season for practices and it showed from the first game that this team was a favorite to make the playoffs. After a rough first 10 minutes in the opening game, the JV team never trailed by more than one goal the rest of the season until the quarterfinal loss and won 3 of the final 4 games, drawing the 4th against St. Catherine - another playoff team. The kids finished the season by running their parents around Park 581 during our last scrimmage and then ran around with each other with some shared pizza from the coaches. We had a fun season and can't wait to build upon it next year.
For anyone that doesn't follow professional soccer, during the World Cup, there is a term given to the grouping of teams that the media declares the toughest - the Group of Death. Our Varsity Team ran into that this season as our Buckeyes faced the teams that finished 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 6th in the regular season, but Coaches Reilly and Rom reported that the Varsity Team had fun and vastly improved throughout the season - playing second overall seed St. Linus in a tough first half before their defense took out two of our players. The highlight of the season was a thrilling victory against St. Alexander, an annual favorite with Xander Rom scoring the game winner of a 1-0 victory. With a large group of 6th graders set to rejoin the rest of the 2022 semifinalists next fall, the future is bright heading into the 2023-24 Season.
We say farewell and best wishes to Colin Barry (Marist), Danny Barsch (Rice), Kobe Chancellor (Mt, Carmel), Emilia Czajkowskyj (Ignatius), Christian Dossous (Marian Catholic), Lucas Hennessy (Whitney Young), Brendan Reilly (Mt. Carmel), Julian Rojugbokan (Mt. Carmel), and Jacob Velarde (Rice) as they begin their next chapters in life. Rumor has it that most, if not ALL of them plan to try out for their soccer teams. This is the first Varsity class that I watched play more than just walking past them at the park. Seeing them at practice with the JV team, teaching them and working with them, makes me happy that they'll all be continuing to play and enjoy other things in high school. We might have to coordinate freshman games next year to cheer on our Buckeyes.
Summer Soccer Camps and Adult Rec "League"
Area high schools offer boys, girls, and co-ed soccer camps beginning the week of June 6th. As a sample, Br. Rice (boys), McAuley (girls), St. Rita (boys) and Marist (all) each have camps costing between $50 - $90 per weekly camp listed on their Athletics Summer Camps webpages.
For younger kids, Chicago KICS (kicsfc.com) is hosting two weeks of soccer camps at the Evergreen Park Sports Complex (91st St just west of Western) beginning the week that school ends. KICS hosts other camps around the area, but this one is close.
Week 1: 2nd - 8th Grade ( Co-ed)
6/12 - 6/15 9:00am - 11:00am
Week 2: 2nd - 8th Grade ( Co-ed)
6/19 - 6/22 9:00am - 11:00am
Register online with the link below:
https://evergreenparkhs.8to18.com/dashboard/catalog
If you have any questions, please contact:
Edgar Montelongo
edgar@kicsfc.com
Head Soccer Coach - Boys & Girls Soccer
Evergreen Park Community High School directly at .
KICS is not the only club soccer program in the area, but they are the only one that sends me info on camps and clubs. If others have information that would be great to share with the group, please do not hesitate to forward that information to me. Thanks in advance.
While it is not a camp or for kids, the Chicago Beverly Adult Soccer group (find us on Facebook Groups) hosts friendly, co-ed pickup games for players of all ages (16 - 65?) and skill levels (OMG to MLS). Generally 2-hour games start at 9am or 10am on Saturday and/or Sunday mornings depending on the weather. There is no cost, no membership, and no obligation. It's just soccer for fun and exercise.
2023 Fall Soccer Registration
Sign-up for the 2023 Fall Soccer Season is now underway at https://registration.buzz/barnabas/.
Saturday Soccer is our In-House Saturday Morning Coffee League for beginner and intermediate players from Pre-K thru 4th Grade to develop their soccer skills. The league kicks off on the Saturday after Labor Day and runs until the end of October. Rotating weekly sessions begin at 8:30a / 9:30a / 10:30a at the field behind the Convent.
League Soccer is competitive soccer, relatively speaking, played against other area schools. Players of all skill levels are grouped into two-grade levels (1st/2nd | 3rd/4th | 5th/6th - JV | 7th/8th - Varsity) per league. The younger groups will play approximately 10-games over a 6-week period with no playoffs. The older groups will play approximately 6 games with a short playoff after the regular season. League Soccer practices begin when school begins. Games begin around Labor Day and the season lasts until the middle of October. Game days are played upon the coordination of the League, usually Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday for 1st/2nd and Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday for 3rd/4th.
Last year, JV and Varsity conflicted with girls basketball too often. Our intention is to work around those schedules as much as possible this year. The JV and Varsity coaches are meeting the week after school begins to start formulating a plan to create balanced teams next year. Playing multiple sports is hard on the kids and the parents and we will do our best to make sure those that want to be out on the pitch with us can do so.
Please contact Kevin O'Kelly at saintbarnabassoccer@gmail.com with any questions you might have.
Have a great summer!