Young Pacesetters Medal at UT 3v3

On Feb. 20, Jimmy Duwve, Nathan Masters, Chet Lutz, and Luke Gonia played in a 3x3 tournament in the new University of Toledo facility and won for their age group.

Pacesetter Soccer Club Season Kick-Off

Hundreds of Pacesetter players and family members attended the Pacesetter Soccer Club Family Picnic on Saturday, August 8, 2009. It was held on the club training fields at Pacesetter Park.

Pete Klein, pacesetter board member and Julie Klein, one of the event organizers, man the commercial grill near the tent (both donated by Toledo Tent Company of Toledo)

If you missed the event, mark your calendars to watch for a date in August next year! It was a great success and the board has already approved one for next season!

Director of coaching, Jimmy Walker prepares to be dunked by an accurate kick!

The Dunk Tank was the highlight of the day, with the Club's Director of Coaching, Jimmy Walker and several of his coaching staff being the targets of a perfect soccer kick. Everyone brought food to share and a parent-player game helped work off all the low-calorie desserts! The youngest participants spent most of their day in the Bounce House, although the occasional young or old adult joined in the fun. The Soccer game organized by Jimmy was also great fun until the lightening display! Fortunately, that was over quickly before most folks could even decide if they should leave or not!

Jimmy organizes the soccer game

In spite of some rain, the festivities continued without a hitch! See photos.

Soccer Cookie Cake donated by Kerri Walker's niece!

Boys U-15 players Chris Ellis, Brad Brown and Brandon Zakeri enjoy the event!

Club has great camp success this summer

During the month of July Pacesetter Soccer club hosted camps with over three hundred area youths participating.

This year was something special with coaches coming over from The English Premier League to work with our players. It was an opportunity of a lifetime for the players to get coached by people that have had huge success in the game in the best league in the world. There will not be many places in America that will have the opportunity to get the type of coaching our Pacesetter Soccer Club and area players had in July. Due to the high Profile of the camp Channel 11 TV did a feature article on the camp (see video) and the Toledo Blade publicized it as a main story on the sports page (see article).

This Year's Staff included Dennis Bailey, Mark Delaney and Jim Walker who have a combined 70 years experience working with the best teams and players in the world. Having these three coaches is the equivalent of NBA coaches and players coming to Toledo to coach basketball for two weeks.

Dennis Bailey is the only player ever to score a hat-trick against Manchester United at Old Trafford in the English premier league. Manchester United is arguably the most famous sports team in the world. Mark Delaney was the Captain and MVP of Aston Villa F.C who also play in the EPL. Mark also captained the Welsh national team in World Cup qualifiers and is now on the Coaching staff at Aston Villa in the EPL. Jim Walker won the EPL as a player for Derby County in 1972 which is the equivalent of winning a Super Bowl. Jim went on the Coach at Aston Villa in the EPL for over 15 years.

We have already set our camp dates for next year and expect an even bigger turn-out from area soccer players. Next years camps will be over the weeks of July 12-16 and July 19-23. The good news is we have already talked to Dennis, Mark and Jim and they are penciled in for a return in 2010.

Click here to see pictures from our 2009 Soccer Camps.

Club's Former Players College Bound

By: Chip Smith

One of the Pacesetter Soccer Club's most successful boy's teams will see its players continue on in the sport at the collegiate level this fall.

Many of the team's players, who captured back-to-back-to-back Ohio North State Cup titles and Region II Championship berths in 2006, 2007 and 2008, are taking their skills and lessons learned to the college pitch. From the Division 1 level to the Community College arena, the team will be well represented this fall.

The team, which was coached by Chip Smith, won its first state title in 2006, and then continued an unprecedented run that saw it win three in a row. Along the way the team won several tournaments, appeared in some of the best college showcases in the country, and competed in the highly prestigious Midwest Regional League Premier Division.

"Looking back now, this team's resume is quite impressive. Not too many teams in our club's history can say they've done the things this team did," stated Smith. "The by-product of these accomplishments was interest in our players by college coaches."

What led to all the success? Several players were quick to note a variety of reasons.

"We believed in ourselves, never forgot that simple hard work could not be avoided to achieve our goals, and we never took ourselves too seriously," remarked Sylvania Southview graduate Victor Lin. Lin, a defender and midfielder for the team, will continue his academic pursuits at the University of Chicago this fall.

"We had great team chemistry and the desire to go far. We played for each other and the common goals of the team, not the individual," said Sylvania Northview graduate and future University of Cincinnati Bearcat Justin Marquardt.

Each player also pointed out the bond shared throughout the team.

"We did it for the guy next to us, not for ourselves. We were like brothers and didn't want to let each other down," added former Clay High School star Ricky Dempsey, who will play at Owens Community College for head coach Art Johnson.

Smith agreed the team's success was not just because of the talents each player possessed.

"We had a lot of material success as a group, but what made me the proudest was the way they conducted themselves off the field, the responsibility they felt for one another, and the idea they had of always putting the team first. As a coach this was a special experience for me."

In recent years the Toledo area has seen many highly regarded players choose not to continue playing at an advanced level. Smith stated that he and the club made it clear to the players they could play in college if they wanted to. The recruiting process for most of the players began when they were sophomores in high school.

"I scratched my head for years trying to figure out why so many quality players from our area did not play collegiately. We found that some of it was due to lack of knowledge about the process, perhaps not being exposed properly, and the passion in the players to actually go do it. As a club we wanted to make sure the kids had every possible chance to pursue college soccer," said Smith.

"I think as a club, and in particular our Club Administrator Teresa Keefe, researched every imaginable avenue. We gave them some good opportunities, and for many it panned out."

Several players echoed Smith's sentiments.

"The competitive practices and positive atmosphere of the team made me love the sport. After my experiences at Pacesetter I wanted to continue playing at the next level," stated team tri-captain Dan Cooperider. Cooperider, who graduated from Northview, will play for Cincinnati.

Former Anthony Wayne High School goalkeeper Mac Church believes the whole experience was vital.

"Pacesetter opened my eyes to some of the best competition in the country. It exposed me to essentially any college I wanted." Church will continue his career at Ohio Northern University.

"Pacesetter taught me how to prepare myself for games, how to handle myself during the recruiting process on and off the field. I matured a lot which made it easy to transition to talking to actual college coaches and to know what they were talking about," said former Ottawa Hills standout Sam Kuehnle. Kuehnle, who scored the winning goal to clinch a Division III State Title for Ottawa Hills this past fall, will play at Case Western.

Sylvania Northview coach Ryan Creech had four players from the Pacesetter team suit up for him each fall. He noticed the impact the Pacesetter team had on his players right away.

"As the coach at Northview High School I am always drawing players from the local clubs in Sylvania. The Pacesetter Soccer Club has consistently provided our program the luxury of athletes that played the game of soccer at an extremely high level. The quality instruction, volume of competitive games and exposure the Pacesetter players received afforded us the opportunity to conduct much more advanced training sessions and topics that brought high school soccer to a level of excellence we might not have had otherwise."

Northview reached the Division 1 State Semi-Finals in 2007. In 2008, Northview earned the #1 state ranking in Ohio. All four Pacesetter players started for the Wildcats each year.

Smith hopes the lessons learned regarding this team's experiences will benefit the club's teams in the future. With Jimmy Walker, former Penn State University assistant coach, now acting as the club's Director of Coaching, Smith believes more and more Pacesetter players will go on to play in college.

"We have a great club with some of the best coaches and facilities in the country. We also have a very talented crop of young players coming through right now. Our goal is to make our players the best they can be by putting them in the most competitive environment. If you look at the success of the local high school teams you will see that the majority of players belong to our club. We are excited to see the history of sending players to top colleges continue and we are looking forward to guiding more players through," commented Walker.

"This team in particular is sending ten players to play in college which is an amazing accomplishment. The same will be said for our U16 and U17 teams in the next year or two. This accomplishment speaks volumes for our club, the coaches and kids that work tirelessly to improve year round," he added. Walker took over as DOC for the club this past winter.

Kyle Scharfenberg, who played for Creech at Northview, believes the team's successes and experiences helped mold him into the player he is today. Scharfenberg, 2008 Division 1 District Player of the Year, will play for Lafayette College in Pennsylvania this fall.

"Without this team, and the club, I'm not sure I would be ready or capable of playing in college. I learned so much from my experiences being on this team. I became a better player because of it, a better leader because of it, but more importantly a better person because of it. I know each guy feels the same way," he stated.

Below is a list of players, their former high schools, and the colleges they will be attending. * denotes players who will be attending for academics only.

Pacesetter U17 Boys win State Championship

The Pacesetter U17 Boys team won the State Championship last night after a tough played overtime game with Penine United.

The game was the first ever State Cup final to be played indoors at the Brad Friedel Academy and it was one of the most dramatic finals Ohio North has seen in years.

Pacesetter got on the board in the first half from a great goal by in form striker AJ Klever. Penine came out strong in the second half and with 4 minutes remaining tied the game up.

The game went into overtime and in dramatic fashion Ben Bryant hit a 25 yarder in the top corner to put Pacesetter back on top. With 3 minutes remaining AJ Klever got his second of the game with a brilliant strike from 30 yards to seal an excellent contest between two competitive teams.

"It was a great result for us today," said Head Coach Jimmy Walker. "Penine is a very good team and played some great soccer at times tonight. Our boys have come a long way this season and we have showed great character and work ethic over the last month."

The boys will now head to South Dakota in June for the next phase of the USYSA National Championship series.