| Welcome to the official web site for the Division III SMSC Girls U-12 Soccer Team known the world over as the Long Beach 1 |
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 Champion, SMSC Girls U-12 Turkey Shootout Tournament, Dec. 1999 |
| First place, SMSC Girls U-12 Regular Season 1999-2000 |
| Champion, SMSC Girls U-12 Club Tournament 2000 |
| Champion, Southern District Tournament 2000 |
| Runners-Up, Mississippi Youth Soccer Association, U12 Girls Division III, 2000 |
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Coach Bill Maloy, 228-868-6574
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What's happening with the Team? 17 Jul 2000
The July issue of Mississippi In Touch, a publication of the Mississippi Youth Soccer Association, lists the results of Tide American Cup (p. 11).
Division III U12 Girls: NEJSO Red Storm 2 SMSC Millennium 1 Ok, so it's not exactly a team photo, but at least one team member was excited about the team name appearing in print :^)
The Millennium is represented at the Long Beach Middle School Spring Concert by 3 (count'em: THREE) student-athlete/musicians: Chrissy, Kinsey and Maggie.
The Millennium is represented at the Long Beach Middle School academic awards ceremony by 4 (count'em: FOUR) student-athletes: Allison, Claire, Courtney and Lizzie.
At the end of regulation, the score was Millennium 1 - Storm 1, so the teams played a mini-game, but battled to a zero-zero tie. So the teams lined up for a Penalty Kick shootout, but after 5 shooters, it was STILL tied. So the teams brought another round of shooters, but after 5 more rounds of kicks things were still tied. So the game went into sudden death PKs. (gulp!) The Storm missed their first kick. Annette came out of the goal long enough to take a kick, but missed. Barely. And then the Storm made one. The first Millennium sub took her kick ... and it was blocked. It seemed like it took an eternity to decide a MYSA U-12 Division III Girls champion, and both teams were deserving. One collection of Medals had red ribbons, and the others were blue. The Millennium wore home the red ones -- the ones with "Runner-Up" stamped into the reverse side. But what a game! And what a season! So the Millennium has fallen to another Division III team for the first time in their history, and in the last game of their season. But it wasn't for lack of effort, nor lack of heart. And with that we close the chapter on this small piece of South Mississippi Soccer History -- until the Ice Cream party, that is :^) Gooooooooooooo Millennium!
The Millennium beats the Tidal Wave 2-1, thereby advancing to the MYSA State Championship game at 3:00 PM.
In the first day's competition at the Mississippi Youth Soccer Association State Championship tournament, the Millennium manages a 1-1 tie against a team from Meridian, and a 4-0 shutout against a team from Tupelo. The Millennium's 10 point performance in the afternoon game brings their point total to 14, setting up an 11 AM showdown with the SouthWest Jackson Tidal Wave who finished the day with 18 points -- having beaten both Meridian and Tupelo by 2-0. The math is simple: a win and we're in [the Championship game]. A loss or a tie will herald the End of the Millennium.
This weekend's Division III U12 Girls State Championship Tournament Schedule is published on the web. See if you can find any fuscia on that page :^) A slightly more user-friendly version of that page is available here.
Happy Birthday, Alexandra!
Congratulatory messages start flowing in from literally "all over the world."
With a score of 3 goals to zero, the SMSC1 Millennium wins the Southern District Championship over a strong team from the Laurel-Jones Soccer Club, becoming the "South1 Millennium" in the process, and advancing to the State Tournament to be played Mother's Day weekend in Gulfport. The team from Laurel-Jones will be known as the "South2 Orange Crush" at the State tournament. Championship Game highlites include a towering kick from Maggie which was captured on videotape, though not in an MPEG file :^( Reviewing the game tape, Coach Bill has just about convinced himself that that kick by Maggie, sending the ball deep into the Laurel-Jones defense from in front of her own goal, was the strongest kick by any U12 girls soccer player in all of recorded history. Also the Millennium defense played another outstanding game, with Kellie's stealing the ball from "number 43" and sending it upfield, all while falling backward, shining as one of many defensive gems. Gooooooooooo Millennium!!!
In an 8 AM game against OSSO2, the Millennium gets a wake-up call when Ocean Springs scores a goal against them in the first quarter of the game. The Millennium rallies with 5 unanswered goals, and advances to the Championship game at 12:30 to face the winner of U12 Girls Division III Bracket A. Game highlites include a Kinsey-to-Lizzie-to-Shayna-to-Angie combination goal, with yet another "Millennium left foot" as the last the thing touching the ball before settling into the net.
In the first day of Bracket competition in the Southern District Tournament, the SMSC1 Millennium defeats a team from the Biloxi Soccer Organization (BSO1) by a score of 5-0. Since an earlier game had Ocean Springs 2 and Biloxi 1 battling to a 0-0 tie, the win against Biloxi places the Millennium squarely in first place in Bracket B with the maxium 10 points, over two teams tied with 4 points. Game highlites include an "18-yarder" by Lizzie, yet another left-footed goal by Shayna, and a Courtney-to-Ashley "leave a Millennium midfielder unguarded and suffer the consequences" goal.
Happy birthday, Annette!
The Millennium battles to a 2-2 tie against "the Storm", a Division I U12 Girls team from Gautier, Mississippi, in a "friendly" game held at the Jackson County Soccer Complex. LB1 (also now known as SMSC-1) broke out to a 2-0 lead after two first-quarter goals by Shayna, but a penalty kick awarded after a "hand-ball in the box" brought the half-time score to 2-1. A miscue by the stand-in Millennium goalie in the third quarter gave the Storm a chip shot and a game tying goal. The fourth quarter was fairly evenly played, though the Millennium had a chance to win the game, late, during a "3 on one" situation in which Lizzie could have taken a shot or passed to an off-sides teammate. Guess which she decided to do :^(. Shayna's ensuing goal was not counted, and the Storm was awarded a free kick deep in their own end of the field.
A Long Beach Millennium team photo appears on page B-8 of the Sunday edition of the Sun Herald, along with a summary write-up of their season to date, under the headline "Long Beach girls win U-12 division." The photo which appeared in the paper was taken by a team mom of the Gulfport Scrappers (aka "Jill's team", aka "Scotty's team", aka Santa Claus's team). It was given to the Millennium, along with several others, after Gulfport1 had their photos developed following the pre-season tournament. Now whose birthday present could we make this into? :^)
Happy Birthday Joni and Maddie!
Bad news: Practice is rained out. Good news: It rained.
Happy Birthday, Liz!
Coach Bill oversleeps, missing the last coaching clinic before District, and thereby preventing his team from further advancement in the state playoffs. April Fools! Not only did he get certified to Coach U12 (and above) teams, he also completed the U10 (and below) field work, just in case there's some U8 team that needs a coach next year. Unfortunately, Coach Bill will probably be too sore to do much skating on Sunday. Then again, maybe not.
With two 3-0 wins and a 2-2 tie, the Millennium finishes SMSC Club tournament play with 25 points, and a Championship trophy. The day started well, with a 3-0 win against Orange Grove 2. Shayna had the game-winner in the second quarter, and she followed it with an insurance goal just before halftime. With Jennifer sitting out the third and fourth quarters (because Coach Bill was looking a little bit ahead), Maggie moved up to play center midfield, and scored the fourth quarter goal that brought the Millennium's "tournament point total" up to the 10 point maximum. With the OG1-GPT1 game ending in a tie, Maggie's goal could have been pivotal, based on how the Millennium performed in their next game against Gulfport, but more importantly, how the second place team did in their other games. Shayna and Annette combined at goalkeeper for the shutout. Courtney came very close to getting a critical third team goal, herself. With the ball bouncing in front of the opposing goal, reality seemed to turn into "slow motion" as she positioned herself for a shot, but the ball bounded across the end-line :^( As things turned out, LB1 played their best Soccer of the Tournament against Gulfport 1, shutting them out, and went into their final game of the tournament solidly in first place with the maximum 20 points. Lizzie's and Shayna's first quarter goals put the Millennium up 2-0 after one quarter, while Kellie, Kinsey, Maggie, Jennifer, Chrissy, Aimee, -- and ALL the Millennium defenders -- held Gulfport at bay for the rest of the game. Annette got another shutout and Shayna's fourth quarter goal put the Millennium squarely into first place in the Tournament, setting the stage for the game which would decide the Year 2000, U12 Girls, SMSC Club Champion. Unfortunately, the game against Orange Grove 1 in the afternoon was the sloppiest in recent memory. Center passes to the opposition in front of the goal, breathtaking saves at the last second by Maggie, and far too many blocked shots by Annette in goal. Coach Bill lost his voice by halftime. Even so, the Millennium jumped to an early lead, but Shayna's firt quarter goal was answered shortly thereafter. After Orange Grove 1's goal in the second quarter put the Millennium behind in the score, 2-1, for the only time in the Tournament, Coach Bill was heard to yell "Come on! Let's play some Soccer!!" from the sideline. A breakaway goal by Shayna a few seconds later knotted the score at 2-2. We'll refer to that as "excellent coaching" :^) And now for a little "What If?" What if the OG1-GPT1 game from earlier in the day had ended in a 1-1 tie, rather than a 2-2 tie? And what if Orange Grove 1's 10 point result against Orange Grove 2 had been "only" a 2-1 win? Then going into that last game of the Tournament, OG1 would have had 12 tournament points to the Millennium's 20, rather than the 15 to 20 that is was. And *if* that final game had ended with Orange Grove 1 leading 2-1, OG1 would have received 8 points to the Millennium's 1. Even so, the Millennium would have won the Championship, even with a loss, based on their 21 points to OG1's 20. That's why that 3rd goal in the Gulfport or the OG2 victories could have proven so important: With the tournament ending in a 20-20 tie, Orange Grove 1 would have won the championship on the first tie-breaker: head-to-head competition. Ok, enough with the hypothetical :^) In the second half of the game, with the team nearly spent and Claire suffering from heat exhaustion on the sideline, the Millennium missed shot after shot after shot, and though most of the final quarter was played on the Orange Grove half of the field, all the little girl gas tanks were reading "empty." The game finished in a 2-2 tie, but the Millennium had finished with the most tournament points so they won themselves a Championship trophy. On to Hattiesburg!
The official, final, SMSC Girls U-12 regular season ranking is posted on the SMSC Coaches web site:
End of Regular Season Rankings
Coach Bill's notes on the above:
where (*) represents a game that wasn't actually played
Coach Bill unearths some season-ending trivia he'd like to share. As much as he seems to concentrate on offensive performance, Coach Bill has discovered a fairly impressive team statistic: Of the 15 regular season and tournament games the Millennium has played, 8 of them (read: more than half of them) have been shutouts. To be sure, the team has some players with rather gawdy goal totals (24 & 15), but the truth is that defense wins championships -- whether it's the Super Bowl, the Women's World Cup, an SMSC regular season title, or the SMSC Club Championship. Here's to the defense of the Millennium!
Coach Bill passes out team photos at the Monday practice, having visited the Mail Room Photo Lab after the game on Saturday.
The Millennium closes out their undefeated regular-season schedule by defeating Bay1 by the score of 4-0. Lizzie opened the scoring in the first quarter with a strong shot from beyond the top of the goalie box, after several shots by Shayna had found the side-netting on the outside of the goal. Angie's goal off a nice assist from Shayna, coupled with a few stops by Annette in goal, had the score at 2-0 for the beginning of the second quarter -- even though the team got off to their customarily slow start. The second half action was quite a bit more subdued, as the Millennium seemed to drop into "cruise control" right about the same time that Bay1 seemed to be dropping everyone back on defense. Even so, Lizzie had a third quarter chip-shot off an "extra" pass from Shayna, and Lizzie returned the favor in the fourth quarter with a short pass to Shayna while both were open for a shot deep in the penalty area. On defense, the Millennium played another good game, with the few real scoring threats being turned away long before they became a problem. Annette did get to touch the ball a few times, however, so it wasn't a perfect game by any stretch of the imagination -- and with the SMSC Club Tournament coming up in only 2 weeks, this last regular-season game has definitely left the Millennium with some room for improvement.
LB1 4, BAY1 0. Final regular season record: 7-0-1
The Millennium prevails against Bay3 in their next-to-last game of the regular season, 7-0. The game featured a Shayna first-half "hat trick": 1 first-quarter and 2 second-quarter goals. With Shayna being "marked" in the second half, Allison took over the third quarter scoring, returning a poorly planned goal kick into the net. In the fourth quarter, Shayna found Alexandra open in the middle for a goal -- returning the favor for Alex's game-winning assist from earlier in the game. Not to be left out, Lizzie closed out the scoring with 2 fourth quarter goals of her own. Annette had yet another shutout at goalie, and the rest of the defense also played well, considering all the time Bay St Louis spent on the Millennium half of the field. Special mention goes to Aimee and Chrissy who have both elevated their game dramatically since the start of the season. Team victory number 11 was definitely a team victory. With only a single game remaining in the regular season, the Millennium has a good chance of finishing undefeated, but Coach Bill doesn't want to jinx the team, so he probably won't be mentioning that. Oops.
LB1 7, BAY3 0. Regular season record: 6-0-1A few multi-media highlites:
24 Feb 2000
Happy Birthday, Aimee! The Millennium has a friendly scrimmage against Orange Grove 1, though the atmosphere was more like a party than soccer practice. Several players were overhead singing the theme song from "The Brady Bunch", for some strange reason, possibly in retaliation for Courtney's stirring rendition of the theme from Blues Clues. I guess you just had to have been there.
The Millennium is represented at the Regional Science Fair by 5 (count'em: FIVE) student athletes: Chrissy, Jennifer, Ashley, Lizzie and Allison. Woah! Though just being invited to compete at the Regional level is an honor all by itself, the Millennium group also comes away with 2 fifth place ribbons and an honorable mentionable.
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The SMSC web site is now http://www.smscsoccer.org
The Mississippi State Youth Soccer Association web site is here.
