Carman ready to kick-off another soccer season - Carman Valley Leader

Carman ready to kick-off another soccer season

By Gene Still
Friday May 27, 2005

The Carman Kickers are busy putting the finishing touches on getting ready for the regular season with their sights set on qualifying for the post season. Pre-season practices for the Fourth Division soccer squad are again under the watchful eyes of head coach William Hoogerdijk. “It’s working out well so far,” he said. “And we definitely want to make the playoffs this year.” Carman is scheduled to start their schedule on the road this Tuesday, May 24 when they face Southport. Their first home contest is Monday, May 30 when they’ll host Ragnarok. Entering his third campaign as bench boss of the Kickers, Hoogerdijk has seen first-hand how the club has fallen just short of securing a post season berth the past two years. In 2004, Carman came close to qualifying for the playoffs but were once again left on the outside looking in as they finished a single point short of qualifying. One of the keys to the club’s success this upcoming season will be continuity when it comes to fielding players. “We’ve had an average of at least 11 or 12 guys showing up on a fairly regular basis for the practices. And that’s what we’re hoping for once the regular season gets going,” Hoogerdijk said. “It’s important to have some sort of team chemistry during the year so the guys can get use to each other because otherwise you’re forced to move players around and have them in unfamiliar positions.” Veterans are backCarman will be led by high scoring forward Lyle Vanveen who is expected to be joined up front by Joel Bilodeau. The defense is in the capable hands of returning veterans Tyson Kamminga, Kendall Ferris and Mike Vandevelde. Hoogerdijk said they’ve also got a number of rookie fullbacks who could make an impression this year and they are: Ian Bergsma, Colin Termeer and Hugo Vaneeken. Goaltending remains a slight concern. The coach said, as of press time, they were looking at Marty Wagman, a goaltender from Winnipeg. But the Kickers had not received a formal commitment from the potential starting netminder. In the meantime, they’ll be going with Rich Vanderveen, who Hoogerdijk pointed out is a talented athlete and other than needing a little more experience, is a very solid goaltender.. However, the coach said he would prefer to have Vanderveen serve as a back-up netminder and instead, play his regular position of sweeper-striker.