From the President……….
Hello to all the members and friends of the Schwaben AC.
Please take a moment and remember the friends who left us this year:
Gerhard Weiler, Carol Knill, Marianne Juengling
With the 2013 soccer season drawing to a close, it’s a good time to reflect on the events and activities of the Club during the year.
January was a quiet time with preparations for the Indoor Season and Indoor games starting for all our teams at various Indoor facilities. Early Spring the Field Committee started preparing the Schwaben Center, the Field house and the soccer fields for the Outdoor Season. The Indoor Season came to an end with our U-11 Boys & Girls Teams, U-9 & U-15 Boys winning championships in their competitions.
The Club will field 17 Youth Teams, boys and girls, for the Outdoor Season.
The First Team finished in the top five at the Odeum and is prepared to defend their title as MSL Outdoor champs.
May 10th we held our Annual Elections with the entire Board being re-elected and all jobs filled.
The decision was made to repair the road to the fields and caretakers house as large potholes were becoming a problem.
The Club decided to put a big effort into getting a Youth Tournament going again and planned for a three day Tournament on Labor Day weekend. Invitations went out and permits were filed, with Meredith Vail being in charge of the Tournament but getting plenty of help from team Managers and other volunteers.
July 13 & 14 we held our 42nd Annual Senior Tournament with our First Team winning the First Place Trophy and the $1000 cash prize for the winner. The First Team had already repeated as MSL Champion, going undefeated throughout the season! Later in the year they also won the Illinois Open Cup Championship by beating Eagles A.A. Congratulations to the players, Coach Tom Cholewa, Team Managers Mark Schuett and Rocky Hughes for a job well done. Our Over-40 Team made it to the finals in the Schwaben Tournament but lost to United Serbs.
The Tournament was also a financial success, thanks to Tournament Director Karl Braun & Asst. Bill Maliff. The concessions were superbly handled by Erwin Sendef, with George Pawlak heading the Grillmeisters and Rudy Frank ticket sales. We had plenty of volunteers from our members and Youth Teams to assure a full staff at all times. As always, the Brats and Thueringers were the best and Warsteiner was the drink of choice.
It was decided to repair the road to the west side fields prior to the Canstatter Volksfest, because there is a lot of parking traffic on that side. We filled in gravel in the low spots, then rolled and leveled the road. It turned out well and people can now drive without fear of being swallowed by a pothole.
At the Cannstatter Volksfest, the Schwaben Verein and the Schwaben AC held a Memorial Dedication at the Center to honor the memory of Gary Weiler, friend and long time President of the Schwaben Center and a member of both organizations. We will miss Gary’s help, counsel and his friendship!
Gary left the Schwaben AC, the Verein and the Schwaben Center a generous donation from his estate.
Our Annual AC Picnic was popular with all our members, with nearly 200 adults and children attending and enjoying the “Spanferkel”, chicken and beverages. The ladies team provided games and entertainment for the youngster and Rudy Getzinger procured the food.
Our Youth Tournament was a stunning success with 70 teams participating and everyone lauding our Club for the facilities, the scheduling and efficiency of the event. Great job by Meredith and staff! Pleasant weather after Friday’s storms, aided concession sales and the competition on the fields was high quality and lively. Once again, thanks to all the volunteers involved in the Tournament.
The Board agreed to provide lighting for Team practices on the “C” field and Jack Schleiss, with some assistance from Eberhard Land and the Field Committee, got the job done in time for the fall practices.
The AC again hosted a food & a beer tent at the Annual German-American Fest on Lincoln Ave. in Chicago. The weather was perfect, our volunteers were ready for action, but the customers were not spending a lot of their money. Hopefully next year will be better!
Jessica Schuett represented the Schwaben AC as the Steuben Parade Queen and was a great ambassador for our Club.
In early October, our Youth Program hosted a U-13 Select Team from the Hamburger Fussball Verband in a Mini-Tournament at the Schwaben Center. Our Club is planning to send a boy’s team and a girl’s team to Hamburg next year and continue the exchange tradition with the HFV. The HFV Youngsters had a fabulous time, with most of them being hosted by Schwaben families.
Our 87th Annual Anniversary Banquet took place on Saturday, November 2nd at the Schwaben Center and was well attended by members and guests. We were fortunate to have new members, led by Guenther and Brigitte Hoffmann, swell the attendance to 160 people.
We would like to see better participation at the Banquet from our Over-30 Team, the Women’s Team
and the Youth Program in general. We should be able to easily attract 200 people if we make the effort.
The following awards were handed out at the Banquet:
Mr. Schwaben AC – Erwin Sendef & George Pawlak
Mrs. Schwaben AC – Christa Gehard
Thea Award – Anna Braun
Player of the Year – Mark Blades
Membership Pins: 15 years – Nicole Frank
Lisa & Matt Bucholc
Karl Hiller
Otto Weber
25 years – Mark Lemonidis 50 years – Robert Lederer
Special Recognition Rewards: Jack Schleiss, Armin Homann, Helen Defort, Sonia Behrendt,
Jessica Schuett (Queen)
The Schwaben AC also conferred Honorary Membership on Jack Schleiss, Eberhard Land
and Wolfgang Behrendt.
Summarizing 2013, members of the Schwaben AC can be proud of our accomplishments in 2013 on the field of soccer and as an organization. We were active on and off the field, and our members always responded if called upon. We have great leadership in the Youth Program with Director of Coaching Thomas Gansauge at the helm. The Board is strong on support, never just rubber-stamping issues but discussing and solving our various problems in the organization. We will surely have challenges and problems next year and in future years, but together with the membership we will succeed and thrive.
“We are Schwaben”
Willy Schaeffer
President