Steamrollers Open Up the 2018-2019 Season with Renewed Focus

The San Jose Steamrollers closed out the 2017-2018 power soccer season in 8^th place in our first time playing in the top conference, Premier, and meeting our season goal to maintain our standing there for this season. While not indicative by the final result, all players should be commended on playing their hearts out in every game until the final whistle and demonstrating a profound potential to compete with top Premier level teams, taking away valuable lessons to improve our standing this season.

Players on the  San Jose Steamrollers just completed the third week of practice, assessing areas of improvement based on game footage from Nationals and concluding that the main aspect to work on is playing more cohesively as a team. Practices so far entailed fine tuning our skills and overall intensity with a series of drills encompassing the game’s fundamental aspects as even minute details can make a big difference when playing Premier level teams.  Coaches John and Don elected to emphasize the importance of teamwork by asking everyone to provide brief written statements on their individual definitions of team, which were then read out loud in practice to serve as a reminder throughout the season. The collective understanding of team revealed it is about communicating effectively, remembering that success is only possible through the concerted effort of every player performing his role, and demonstrating to ability to overcome any arising challenge with resilience.

Our first games are scheduled for October 20^th at 2 PM and 4 PM in the Bascom Community Center Gym in San Jose if you are interested in coming out to cheer us on. We would greatly appreciate it if you can support John’s fundraising efforts for all three San Jose power soccer programs: Steamrollers, Rockets, and Flash. He will be cycling 102 miles next Saturday, October 6^th to support this cause. The link to donate is listed here: https://fundraise.kingridgefoundation.org/fundraiser/1580577

We look forward to another exciting season of power soccer. Go Steamrollers!

2017-2018 Season Kickoff

After a 2nd place finish in Nationals at Indiana in June, the San Jose Steamrollers kicked off the 2017-2018 season with the first practice session on September 16th. Placing 2nd resulted in the Steamrollers’ promotion to the Premier Cup, the top power soccer conference with a higher degree of competition, and all team members are ready for this challenge. Before returning to the court, head coach John Connolly lead a discussion about team and individual goals to accomplish during the season. Team goals involve beating the Circle City Rollers which is considered the best Premier Cup team and place 8th or better in the conference to avoid dropping out.
Individual goals were as follows:
Ryan: “Join Team USA and get to the top of Premier.”
Chris: “Score 10 goals.”
Sid: “Score 20 goals.”
Frankie: “Score 10 goals and earn 5 shutouts.”
Omar: “Backing up more and shooting more 180 spin kicks.”
Jairo: “Get 2 shutouts in the group stage of Nationals.”
Stanley: “Communicate more on the court.”
The players rolled into the gym to start practice following a “Team!” chant, working to warm-up and tune up for two sets of games scheduled in October on the 7th in Fresno and 21st in San Jose.
Sid’s Thoughts about the season: “As a player on the Steamrollers since 2012, it has been quite a journey working with the team to move up in ranking from 5th to 3rd to 2nd and finally back in the Premier Cup after a few years of hard work. Even though my experience as a player has grown significantly in the past few years, I look forward to digging even deeper this season to find my prime in power soccer and contribute more overall to the team while also avoiding yellow and red cards. Power soccer is not only a sport for me and my teammates, but an arena of purpose where we can showcase our true abilities and change attitudes about disability. I have experienced great pleasure in applying power soccer to my daily life through presentations in my major, Communication Studies, as well as Toastmasters, interning with a local councilmember, and enhancing connections with my friends and family. In my past observations from watching Premier Cup games, the keys to succeeding in this conference are maintaining high level of intensity throughout games and minimizing mistakes. Go Steamrollers!”
Please support John as he bikes tomorrow morning to support all three teams in the San Jose Power Soccer program: Steamrollers, Rockets, and Flash. Here is the link to donate to the cause: https://fundraise.kingridgefoundation.org/fundraiser/984527