Minnesota GLBT Soccer

Twenty players took the field tonight despite the threat of rain and thunderstorms. Several first timers joined us under the rumbling clouds. The level of play was very good, our new players stepped up our skills, but the wet grass proved very slippery for players without cleats. Cool showers fell on us as we played. Some players greatly enjoyed playing in the rain, being reminded of childhood games in the rain. Some of us were cold, reminded of being... cold. Lightning flashed above, high in the sky but we continued to play until the hail fell, when the game was called off.

We played for an hour in the rain on that wet slippery field, and we were dirty and soaking wet. Clearly, we all love playing soccer.

We agreed to put off talking about league play and sponsorship until Wednesday night when the weather might be dryer and more conductive to talking.

Labels: GLBT soccer team, Monday, rain

Somehow, our ragtag group of around 35 players was included in the recent "Rec Sports Kick-off!" edition of the local alternative newspaper. Check out the article that mentions us in vita.mn, "The Skinny on Rec Sports".

We will be playing on Monday night and Wednesday night this week at 6:15 PM at Northeast Park in Minneapolis. If possible please bring both a black and white t-shirt so that we can be flexible when we separate into teams.

We welcome new players of all skill levels, our primary goals are to have fun while we get in better shape and improve our soccer skills.

We will have more information regarding league play and sponsorship possibilities when we meet up on the soccer field.

Tonight was the group's first night playing on Wednesdays. We met at the Northeast Athletic Fields in Minneapolis. We started out with 11 people but JB had to leave shortly afterwards. The group broke into teams of 5 (4X4 with a goalie on each team) and scrimaged for 2 hours. Unfortunatly, we weren't able to play as hard as we normally would since we didn't have any subs.

The mood was very sociable and wasn't as hardcore as we normally play on Monday nights. We did have a new person show up who fit right into the group.

After we played some of us went to Dinkytown and had some pizza and socialized. It was a great ending to a great night.

We will meet once again next week on Wednesday at 6:15 and take the field at 6:30. There is no fee and is a great way to either get an extra night of soccer in or join us if you haven't been able to play on Mondays.

We may not smell wonderful after a game, but we feel great!

Labels: photos

We again had eighteen players show up tonight for Monday Night GLBT Soccer.

There was good news and bad news to be shared with the players. The good news: our men's 6x6 team Flamingos was successfully entered into the Minneapolis Park and Recreation League and will play Tuesday Nights at the Neiman Athletic Complex. The bad news: the co-ed 6x6 league filled up before receiving our registration. Although we are not officially in the league, we are the first in line if any team drops out of the league before it starts on the week of June 3. This means that our co-ed 6x6 team Pineapples is in limbo. The co-ed 6x6 league plays on Sundays. Our options at this time consist of

1. Wait and see if we get into the league or
   
2. See if we can still register for the 11x11 co-ed league.
   

It sounded like there may be sufficient interest in the 11x11 co-ed league, so tomorrow I will register us for it. We may need to do some recruiting to find a few additional players if we successfully get into this league. The 11x11 co-ed league plays on Thursdays or Sundays, according to the sign up sheet.

After some light stretching and chatting about the league situation, we took the field at Northeast Park in Minneapolis and kicked three soccer balls around the field to warm up. It was fun to be running on grass under the evening sun instead of running on rubber turf under artificial light. There was some confusion about how many players we should have on the field, but after some shuffling and shirt changing, we successfully split into two teams and began to play.

The teams were perhaps a bit uneven as the scoring was a little bit lopsided, but everyone seemed to be having a lot of fun and playing well. This was our first time without the indoor walls, and we kicked the ball out of bounds with alarming frequency. We played hard for two hours with seven on the field (including goalie) and two substitution players on each side. Some players needed reminders about throw-in technique, goal kicks, and offsides rules, but for the most part we slowly remembered (or learned for the first time) how outdoor rules are different from indoor rules.

After it got dark and we ended the game, we chatted a bit more, especially about the fact that we will be playing outdoors on Wednesdays at 6:15 PM at Northeast Park. Some Monday night players want to play an additional night, and we have some potential players that have let us know that they would enjoy playing with us, but cannot make Monday nights due to other obligations. Starting this week, we now offer Wednesday Night GLBT Soccer. We will be playing this week Wednesday and next week Wednesday at Northeast Park, but we are open to playing in other locations in the future.

Our next get together will be Wednesday Night GLBT Soccer on April 25, 2007 at 6:15 PM in Northeast Park. We will show up and stretch a bit at 6:15 PM and take the field at 6:30 PM. Bring a soccer ball if you have one and a black and white t-shirt if at all possible.

Labels: GLBT soccer team, league, Monday, Northeast Park, Wednesday

We will be playing outside tonight, Monday, April 23. We will meet at Northeast Park in NE Minneapolis at 6:15 PM and do our best to take the field at 6:30 PM. A yahoo map is here:

http://maps.yahoo.com/maps_result?addr=1615%20Pierce%20St.%20NE&csz=Minneapolis%2C+mn+55413&country=us

We also will have a Wednesday night group this week at the same time and same location.

Labels: GLBT, minneapolis, Northeast Park, soccer

We shot photos on Monday, and many of the images were very good. Some photographs captured action on the field, while other shots captured player personalities. We had 18 players rotating on and off the field. More photos will be posted in the coming days.

Labels: photos, soccer

We will be playing again Monday evening, April 16, 2007 from 8:30 - 9:30 PM at Corner Kick Indoor Soccer. If you plan to join us for the first time, if you would like more information, or if you are interested in carpooling email mnglbtsoccer@gmail.com . If possible bring both a black and a white t-shirt so that we can split into two teams. Please do not wear spikes if at all possible, however we will be moving outside very soon and your spikes will be very appropriate there.

This is the last week that we have our field reserved at Corner Kick, so unless there are major objections, or weather changes drastically for the worst in the coming week, I think we will be moving outdoors when we meet on April 23. Time to start looking for deals on soccer cleats.

Labels: GLBT soccer team, maplewood, minneapolis, minnesota, Monday, soccer

Our game on Monday went excellent, and MN GLBT Soccer continues to attract new players. We had a total of 18 players show up and that was with no new advertising. We had 4 female players and 14 male players. We played for 90 minutes because no one was scheduled on the field after us, and the folks behind the desk did not kick us off the field when our hour was up. We are rapidly outgrowing the small indoor field that has functioned as our soccer nursery.

Andrew has been updating our player information spreadsheet, and based upon your responses we have decided to go ahead and join the Minneapolis Park and Recreation soccer league. We will be fielding two teams: a 6x6 Co-ed team and a 6x6 Men's team. If you are considering playing with us in league play, please check out the rules for the 6x6 league. League play begins the week of June 3, 2007.

Playing in the Minneapolis Park and Rec League costs $495 per team. I will send in our registration forms and fees by the end of this week. Ideally we would have twelve (or more) persons sign up for each team. There has also been mention of finding a pub to sponsor our teams, and if you are so motivated, we empower you to go with the full blessing of the teams to seek out that sponsor. I would hope that a sponsor might cover the cost of our league fees, buy us nice soccer shirts, or both. In case we do not find a sponsor, we will ask for $50 per person that wants to be on a team. We will break even if we get ten persons per team.

At some point, we must to choose team shirt colors, but I will leave that up to the persons that join each team. For the fashonistas that like really cool shirts take a look at a variety of cool women's and men's soccer uniform shirts. Again, pub sponsorship would be super cool... I can just imagine one of these awesome shirts with our favorite pub's logo on it... or we can just buy some cheap five dollar cotton t-shirts.

The registration forms ask for team names, and if anyone has any suggestions for team names please leave a comment below this post with your suggestion. If we do not receive any team name suggestions, I will register our 6x6 Co-ed team as "Pineapples," and our 6x6 Men's team as "Flamingos." The thought is: pineapple = gayest fruit & flamenco = gayest bird. Do you disagree? Got a more interesting name(s)?

Labels: GLBT soccer team, Minneapolis Park and Rec League, soccer, sponsor, team names, uniforms

First off, we will be playing again this evening, Monday, April 9, 2007 from 8:30 - 9:30 PM at Corner Kick Indoor Soccer. If you plan to join us for the first time, if you would like more information, or if you are interested in carpooling email mnglbtsoccer@gmail.com . Please do not wear spikes if at all possible.

That out of the way, we had a great time at the 19 Bar on Friday night. We met some new persons interested in playing with us and talked a bit about the potential for league play in the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Soccer League. With our current level of participation, I propose that we form a 6x6 Co-ed team and a 6x6 Men's team. We will talk about this and other possibilities after we play this evening. This conversation will no doubt continue in the future. Registration for the park league started last week, however and I know the league fills up, so if we are interested in doing this we need to act fast. Participation in a league team is not required for you to continuing to participate in our Minnesota GLBT Monday night soccer group.

Also in discussion is where we will play on Monday nights once we move outdoors. Andrew and Jesse went on a tour of several fields, and Andrew reports:

Jesse and I just went and walked to the fields by the Quarry. We found 6 sets of soccer posts that they were about to put out. The fields seemed like they were in good conditions. That would be my recommendation. It's centrally located so most people can get here pretty easily.

I have also been looking at the locations of other fields on the satellite version of Google Maps to try to find nice looking fields.

Labels: 19 Bar, gay, GLBT, league, lesbian, minneapolis, Northeast Park, soccer, soccer fields

Wow, what a week. 16 players showed up for soccer. By far our largest turn out to date. We deffinetely have the momentum going for us.

April 6th we are planning on meeting at the 19 Bar to have a fun night out on the town. We had problems picking a time so it's really show up whenever. For those of you early birds, come at 8, for you late birds come at 9:30, or if you can't make up your mind, come at 8:45. If you have been playing, come have fun with your fellow players off the field. If you haven't shown up to a practice, come meet us and hang out and see what were all about.

The address is: 19 W 15th StMinneapolis, MN 55403. If you need directions feel free to click on the link to go to this address on Google. mnglbtsoccer@gmail.com

Labels: 19 Bar, drinks, Friday, soccer