With less than 3 weeks to Chicago Cup 08, we have a lot of work to do to make this tournament a success. As with Chicago Cup 06, it goes without saying that everyone will pitch in to help. But for planning purposes it would really help to have a few of our members commit to volunteering in advance. This would allow us to pre-assign a few critical tasks on the days of the tournament.

Also:

We need coolers for the Gatorade come tournament day (Regular Ice Box Coolers). And 1, preferably 2 folding tables. If you are able to loan us any of these items please let Theresa know.

Volunteers - there are a number of tasks associated with hosting a tournament like this, looking after officials, ensuring we have water at the pitch etc...if you would like to help with the organization of these tasks, please send a note to Mags (ladies-captain@chicagofhc.com) or Steve (mens-captain@chicagofhc.com) and let them know.

Chicago Cup 2008

visit: Chicago Cup 08 website

Tournament Schedule: The schedule for Chicago Cup has been confirmed and uploaded onto the tournament website. The fixtures were based on an open draw, no teams where seeded nor was any scheduling preferences given to any one team.

CFHC Teams: Expect CFHC to announce the rosters for our teams participating in ChicagoCup 08 by the end of this week. The intent is to put in two equally strong sides which should be no problem considering the strong pool of players we have to pick from.

Thanks To Our Sponsor: A special thanks to our Chicago Cup sponsors : Ambient Heating & Cooling, De Stefano + Partners, Farmers Insurance, NorthShore Soccer & More, Star Travel Network & Windy City Field Hockey.

Also: AthletiCo will be providing Sports Medicine & Emergency Staff for Chicago Cup 2008. Their Physical Trainers/Therapists will be available on the field during the tournament to address any injury concerns.

Visiting Teams: The participating teams for Chicago Cup 08 have been confirmed. The Chicago Cup 08 website has been updated and the tournament schedule has been uploaded. The participating teams are:

Philaronto, University of Michigan, St Louis, Denver, Central Ohio, Star FHC, Chicago Red and Chicago Blue.

1. Volunteers - there are a number of tasks associated with hosting a tournament like this, looking after officials, ensuring we have water at the pitch etc...if you would like to help with the organization of these tasks, please send a note to Mags (ladies-captain@chicagofhc.com) or Steve (mens-captain@chicagofhc.com) and let them know.

2. Loaner Items: We need coolers for the Gatorade come tournament day (Regular Ice Box Coolers). And 1, preferably 2 folding tables. If you are able to loan us any of these items please let Theresa know.

3. Sponsorship - Ok, we're not too proud to beg. The estimated cost of running this tournament is $5,000 - $6000, we need sponsorship to make this tournament a success, we are not looking for thousands of dollars from you (although that would be nice!) but if everyone partaking in the tournament was able to find 1 sponsor at the $100 level even, we would have no financial concerns and be able to run a really successful event. So please dig deep into your Rolodex of contacts and find the likely candidates. As we mentioned before we have prizes for the members who bring in the most sponsorship money and we can offer sponsors ads in the tournament program, ads at the event itself, space on our website and the knowledge that they are helping Midwest hockey! All the sponsorship details have been in recent weekly updates and if you need more information contact Faizal (marketing-chair@chicagofhc.com) or any board member.

CHICAGO CUP 2008 - 14th & 15th June

Chicago Cup Program Ads

Hello CFHC,

We have reached $650 in Sponsorships. 65% of our goal so far. We have 35% more to go to reach our goal to raise $1000 from sponsors. As an added incentive, the CFHC Board as approved to give 2 prizes to members who raise the most money from sponsorship. The prizes are 1st Place - $50 and 2nd Place - $30. Deadline to get in all sponsorship is May 31st, 2008, so we can add in all the sponsorship logos and messages in the Chicago Cup ’08 Tournament Program.

 

2)       In addition to sponsorship messages in the Chicago Cup 08 Tournament Program, we will have a section for Good Wishes Messages from individuals. For $10.00, we will print a message for the Club or any particular player in the Tournament Program. So, contact your friends, families, lovers or Sarah Marshall and we will include in your message in the Chicago Cup 2008 Tournament Program. Deadline to get in all the messages is also May 31st, 2008.

Contact Faizal for more information.

Thanks,

Faizal

JFK Men's Write-Up

Game 1: CFHC 3 - 0 Bermuda
Ensuring not to break with tradition of previous tournaments, we got off to a pretty slow start in Game 1, it seemed to be taking us a long time to adjust to competitive hockey and the first half was pretty sloppy all in all. We managed to get the goal our pressure deserved shortly before the break with Steve finding Derrek from the right wing who in turn set up Shahid who finished from 8 yards out. The second half was an improvement as we found our rhythm a little more, goals from Klaus and an emphatic short corner drag flick from Derek sealed the contest.

Game 2: CFHC 2-1 Brooklyn All-Stars
For whatever reason this is the game I remember the least about over the weekend. We scored early and dominated the first half but they got one back with pretty much their first chance of the game about 10 minutes before half time. Brooklyn were made up of players from 3 of the NY teams, Big Apple Flickers, Tri-State and the Islanders and they played a little like a group who had a lot of highly skilled players but lacked unity, so while being dangerous we had the bulk of the possession and the chances. We missed a hatful of chances in the second half and 2-1 should probably have been 5 or 6, what it showed though was that we were starting to click and create chances which we had struggled to do against Bermuda.

Game 3: CFHC 6 - 2 DC Dragons
DC came into the game with 5 yellow cards and a red in their first 2 games, and we were determined to use their lack of discipline to our advantage. They had plenty of talent in their squad with a combined 100+ USA caps in their midfield, but they seemed more interested in contesting every decision than actually playing hockey. We came out hard and goals from Steve and Shahid in the first 5 minutes set the tone. From there we kept pushing hard and by the break we were cruising at 5-1, further goals coming from Julian, Klaus and another from Shahid. In the second half we pretty much consolidated our position and took the foot off in light of future games, but not before Julian had scored a beautiful goal, undercutting the ball into the top right corner from the left of the circle.

Game 4: CFHC 2 - 3 Rye
This was a real heartbreaker at the time, but looking back  I'm really proud that it took a last minute goal for the tournament champions to beat us.  After a very tight high tempo first ten minutes that belied the fact it was 8am on a Sunday morning, Derek crossed from the right to Faizal who was hacked as he prepared to shoot, a no-doubt penalty! Shahid put it away cooly to give us the lead. Rye, the only other unbeaten team on Saturday responded, but it took a questionable short corner for them to level the contest shortly before half time. The pressure continued in the second half but it certainly wasn't one way traffic, we always looked dangerous on the break and at the back, Simon and Richie were more than a match for probably the best striker in the tournament. With five minutes to go, Rye took the lead but CFHC rallied and Steve deflected a free hit by Derek from just outside the D two minutes later to make it 2-2. While it would have been a well deserved draw, we couldn't hold out and a deflected cross from the left found the goal with virtually the last touch of the game and we went down 3-2.

Game 5: CFHC 0 - 7 Toronto Lions
So this was physically just a game too far. Toronto were just too fast and fit for us. We got off to a bad start, conceding early which seemed to affect our confidence. Rye had shown that the way to compete with Toronto was to keep it very tight for 10-15 minutes and frustrate their attacking flair and gradually they become impatient. We weren't able to do that and it was a rough 50 minutes for us. To be fair to our guys, the scoreline may suggest that the towel was thrown in but that definitely wasn't the case. For our fifth game on a hot Sunday afternoon, everyone kept working as much as they could, but we just couldn't match their speed unfortunately. It was a disappointing way to end what had been a great weekend, but I don't believe it detracts from the progress we had made earlier in the tournament and it serves as an example of where we need to get to next year. If we can compete with Rye and Rye can beat the Lions twice over the weekend (the final ended 1-1 and Rye won on strokes) it means that we aren't that far away despite the one sided scoreline.

Overall it was a really satisfying weekend to come third in a tournament of this quality. We played excellent hockey at times, with great passion and in a tournament with a lot of discipline problems we had one green and one yellow card in the 5 games something everyone should be proud of.

 

Expect a ladies update shortly..

Umpiring High School Games

For those you who have umpired high school games before or for those that would like to start, please contact Erin Jones who coordinates the officiating.

Here is the 2008-2010 Fee Schedule from her:

2008 - 2010 FIELD HOCKEY FEE SCHEDULE

 

Varsity one game 2 officials, $59.00

Varsity one game, 1 official, $74.00
Varsity and lower level, 2 officials, $90.00
Varsity and lower lever, 1 official, $113.00
Varsity (2 officials) and JV (1 official) $104.00
Lower Level Doubleheader, 2 officials, $88.00
Lower Level Doubleheader, 1 official, $94.00
Lower Level One Game, 2 officials, $49.00
Lower Level One Game, 1 official, $55.00

State Tournament Games -
Sectional/Regional - $5.00 additional per game
Semi Final - $10.00 additional per game
Championship/Consolation - $15.00 additional per game