A Letter From The Technical Director To The Stockade FC Community
Hello everyone —
I had big blog post ready to go in preparation for a massive 2020 season and, like everything else, it was shut down in a flash. Our season canceled, youth seasons canceled, summer camps canceled, youth clinics canceled… everything on pause, and no idea when it might come back.
We’ve almost made it through 2020 (*fingers crossed*) and there is one piece of certainty I can provide;
We will be back! Stockade FC will be back at Dietz Stadium.
While I can’t give an exact date, or guarantee a 2021 season with fans, I can promise that we are working hard towards that goal. We are exploring every avenue and game planning for the many obstacles that could be thrown in our direction.
With that being said, I wanted to give an update as to what we have been working on, and reflect on progress we’ve made:
UPDATE ON THE STOCKADE FC FIRST TEAM
We had a big year in 2019 in Jamal Lis-Simmons’ first season as head coach. We made training sessions a priority and spent countless hours developing a curriculum and a training plan for each and every night. We worked on consistency and raising our competitive level at practices.
I have missed it terribly in 2020, as I’m sure so many of you have, so excuse me while I relive it for a moment here:
We finished the year 7–3–4 (W-L-T) and went on an unbelievable 11-match unbeaten streak (ugh, Boston!). We experienced some of the club’s most incredible moments in 2019 as well — Tyler Swanbeck’s last second winner in Rhode Island; Danilo Markovic’s late equalizer in Brooklyn; Brady Van Epp’s thrilling 92nd minute equalizer after going down to 9-men in front of a massive Dietz crowd vs. Brooklyn (MADNESS! Still gives me chills! “VAN EPPS!”) are just a few of those unforgettable events. We fell a little short of the playoffs and missed out on U.S. Open Cup qualification by a hair but we built a foundation and a core group that can help build this program for years to come.
Many young players established themselves as Stockade FC regulars. It was a transition year, for sure. We saw a decrease in time for many Stockade FC legends. That’s a reality. It is something we are going to continue to see as time progresses. But the groundwork that those players provided us creates new opportunities for more Hudson Valley kids to step into the spotlight.
Our guys carried the momentum of a strong 2019 NPSL season into the fall schedules as well. Many college players, and coaches, thrived in 2019 and were on track to lead us into 2020 with more potential than ever before. Sadly, most of our players, and coaches, missed out on their collegiate seasons this fall as well.
We looked into a number of opportunities to try and bring our players back together during the fall for training. Many field rentals were not available due to COVID-19 protocols and the Dietz stadium schedule was a mystery because the high school sports return to play was unclear at the time. Ultimately, we made the unfortunate decision that it was not worth the risk.
Luckily, most college programs are still eligible to practice throughout the fall and there is still hope of a 2021 spring season, but many players have been granted the opportunity to play in other programs to stay match sharp. Nick Hoffay, our Director of Scouting, and the rest of our staff continues to monitor these players, and do our homework on a number of players we have identified for the future. We were lucky to have seen a good group of players at two tryout sessions before we shut down in March.
We will be ready to go whenever the next NPSL match is upon us.
UPDATE ON THE STOCKADE FC YOUTH EFFORTS
At this point last year, we had just finished two Ulster Savings Bank Youth Clinics. They were both highly successful, in very different ways.
October 27, 2019 was an awful rainy day, but that did not stop us. With over 70 athletes registered, we chose to hold the event in the torrential rain. Only 12 kids came but we had an awesome time and those kids received some very individualized soccer instruction.
Our second youth clinic on November 9, 2019 was vastly different. We had ~100 kids broken into 6 different groups based on age and skill level. We ran skill-based stations in areas such as passing, shooting, footwork, goalkeeping and, of course, plenty of scrimmaging fun.
Our Stockade FC Youth Clinics thus far have been sponsored by Ulster Savings Bank (thank you x 100!!). The sponsorship they provide helps us to supply t-shirts to every athlete that steps foot on the pitch, and helps make the game accessible to every kid in our area. While our clinics are free of cost, the suggested donation of $5 per player helped us raise $520 for future Stockade FC youth events.
As you can imagine, health and safety guidelines have been a challenge while planning youth events in the fall of 2020. It has been complicated. We have been exploring a number of avenues to help get our community back on the field and we will update you as soon as we can.
Our youth group has been growing, and we will continue to do so. With the addition of Rondout AYSO’s Jed Tucker and the guidance of Hudson Valley soccer legend and author of “Soccer Starts At Home,” Tom Byer, our program has taken great strides in development. We continue to actively work on building our next steps for the Stockade FC Youth Academy. Much of this process takes time! We are building, piece by piece.
So many of our current and past Stockade FC players have been Hudson Valley born and raised. They played for local club teams and developed their identity as soccer players from experiences playing at Tech City, Stringham Fields, Creek Road, Casperkill and The Net at Gold’s Gym, to name a few. Our goal is to continue to help build that identity as a soccer community.
The goal of our Stockade FC Youth Program is not to compete with our local soccer clubs, and it never will be. Programs like KASL, Red Hook Soccer Club, East Fishkill, Poughkeepsie, Quickstrike, Nirvana and so many more are the building blocks to a successful soccer culture. The aim of our youth program is to help those building blocks thrive, to help them remain strong, or even become stronger than what they are today. We are going to continue to work with local players and help them develop their skills to be the best players they can be. We are going to work with coaches to provide professional coaching education to all that work with our youth. We are going to provide programs to keep kids playing soccer and help them fall in love with the game, just as all of us have.
And yes, eventually, we are going to create top level competitive teams at the youth levels to rival some of the biggest DA programs in our area — and we are going to do it at the lowest possible cost to families. The goal will always be to provide more opportunities to play and make soccer more accessible to every kid in the Hudson Valley.
UPDATE FROM THE DUTCH GUARD
The Dutch Guard, the official supporters group of Stockade FC, has stayed active at a distance this year. In May, they held a virtual “Wooden Shoe” tailgate with the Hartford City’s Agents of Hale. In June, the Dutch Guard held a virtual Prideraiser, selling rainbow shirts and mugs for the Hudson Valley LGBTQ Community Center. In October, they released a fall merchandise line featuring facemasks and a new zip-up hoodie, as well as a fundraiser for local victims of Domestic Violence with Wear Purple Day shirts. Like all of us, the Dutch Guard is hoping to resume in-person meetups in the spring once it is deemed safe.
We are so appreciative of our amazing fans and can’t wait to be back at a rocking Dietz Stadium on those summer nights!
Thank you for your never ending support! 🧡
We Are Stockade!
Dan
