I wanted to share a recap of our season and some short history of our Major Women’s team since many of you may or may not be familiar with our program or even had a chance recently to see us play. In the seven years that I have coached this team (I only had a one-year contract when the team started in 2016) we have been the winningest team in the United Soccer League of Pennsylvania during that span. Coaching this team is challenging to say the least with the many personalities that all coaches must manage through to find success and the attendance week to week with a different set of 12-17 players for each game. This team is resilient and flexible year and year out and that is the reason for the success that has been achieved.
The make-up of our team is many young women in the medical field, lawyer, teachers, scientist, students, finance, hospitality industry just to name a few, with several of the players working Sunday afternoons after our game.
This season we started the Fall with three new players, we did not start off well in week one but rebounded quickly to get a result in week two. We really struggled in the Fall portion of our schedule this season since we had a very difficult time with an inconsistent keeper attendance issue. But the team stayed on the course and focused with no letdown. We ended the Fall schedule in the bottom third in the standings and were ready and prepared to turn it around in the Spring.
The Winter portion of our team schedule involved the indoor State Cup Competition in which we had so much participation from our team that we split up and entered two teams in the competition. Both teams qualified for the playoffs but did not reach the final. Still, we put out a quality product with both of our squads; something our organization should be very proud of.
The Spring portion of our season was very positive as we had many quality results with a strong finish and a great feeling looking forward to next year. We started off with two more new players as well with some aging veterans calling it a career. Our Spring record was four wins and two losses with a total of 34 goals scored and eight against in just six games. This put us in fifth place for the final standings of the year.
Our annual fundraiser, which consists of the beef-n-beer that we have been able to have at a few different venues has always had great attendance and has been able to practically fund our team for the season. We were not able to have this event this year, but it will be returning in 2024. Thank you to all that have attended in the past along with your financial support.
Our team is very fortunate to have a core group of five to six players that are the glue of this team and have been together since its inception. They help keep the atmosphere competitive but at the same time we still want to have fun as a team. Without this core group I would not be able to continue this week in and week out, but they honestly still make it fun to share any of my soccer experience with the squad along with being a fun, interesting group to be around.
In the six years we have a list of accomplishments which include:
- USL of PA League champs
- EPSA Women’s State Cup Champs
- Finalist USL of PA League – Twice
- Indoor State Cup Champs
- Indoor State Cup Finalist
- YSC Sports Indoor League Champs
- YSC Sports Indoor Finalist
The past seven years could not have been possible without the endless work that Michelle has done to recruit players, wash uniforms, handle the paperwork, get a roster together for every game. Without Michelle, I find it very difficult to see this team existing, she has put her heart and soul into this team from the start and I know that the entire team appreciates it and is very thankful.
I want to personally thank Michelle for all her hard work behind the scenes which makes my life on Sunday’s quite interesting and very enjoyable.
Steve Paul, Head Coach
United German Hungarians
Major Division Women
The Featured image shows Steve along with members of the team at our 100 Years of Soccer Cocktail Party.
Checkout some other recent Photos:
