On 16 December 1998 a team meeting was held at Mama's Restaurant in Fairfax, VA. Kevin Corry was out of town so Nels Erickson presided (more or less). Turnout was pretty good; there were about 25 Suburbans present. The meeting started at about 7:30 when the television was switched off, and the following matters were discussed in between snarfing down food and gulping down beers:
Treasury
We lost money last year! An invitation was issued for people to come up with ideas for fund-raisers, preferably not having to do with females, controlled substances or larceny. A car wash was mentioned.
Re-election of Officers
Jeff Harpold, after many years of being the treasurer, said he was ready to give it up. Nominations were then opened and Suburbs members surpassed themselves at nominating others for the position. Finally, Tom Loesel goodnaturedly accepted duty as he saw it and is now our new treasurer. Pete "Threepete" Robertory's position as secretary was opened up, and Vinnie Panigot and Wes Clark, realizing that the pen is mightier than the aluminum stud, jointly accepted. It looks like Vinnie will be maintaining the phone list and doing the newsletters and Wes (that is, me) will be maintaining this web site - heaven help you. Our thanks to Jeff and Pete for their work and effort in behalf of the club!
State of the Union
There was some talk about a MARFU realignment and dues going up. (No surprise there.) I thought I heard that dues for the Spring '99 Season would be $85 and something about Raleigh leaving Division II because of their long and odious commute to games, but I didn't get the details. (I promise to unplug my ears better next time.) Then a show of hands was requested from all those who wanted to play basketball during the winter. The hands of some tall guys duly went up. Then Sean the Brit sitting next to me asked the obvious question, "Why don't we play rugby instead?" and, getting no definitive response, muttered something about how risk-free American sports were. (In Britain they reenact their Civil War with pikes and spears in a way that would give American event sponsors fits. And then, of course, there are those tiny deathtrap cars - but I digress.) Elvis took offense when I said I thought soccer sucked, and the whole train of conversation just sort of degenerated from there.
Match Play, 1999 Spring Schedule
Elvis passed out a printed schedule and then stated it was tentative. So tentative, in fact, we went through it line by line and came up with something new. According to Elvis here's what we're looking at right now:
March 6: Harrisburg, PA
April 3: Newport News, VA
May 1: PAC's C&D sides, home
Note: We have a lot of away matches because we can't use our pitch until April 15.
Coach's Corner
Dave Lyster wasn't present at this but Jeff Harpold was. His suggestion for improvement was, can you guess?:
March 13: USUHS (Bethesda, MD) and
March 13-14: Savannah, GA (St. Patrick's Day tournament)
March 20: Brandywine, MD
March 27/28: Porter Cup, Richmond
April 10: Roanoke (a-side) & West Potomac (b-side), home
April 17: Rocky Gorge (I'll cancel this if I can get a home game instead)
April 24: Frederick, MD, away (this is tentative, depending on MARFU playoff schedule - Frederick is in playoffs)
May 8: ALUMNI WEEKEND (Old Boys vs. Young Boys)
May 16-17: Old Gaelic Tournament, Carlisle, PA
We adjourned at about 8:30. One guy I didn't recognize (hey, I'm new) tried using Nels to do a ragged sort of biceps curls. Kelly nagged Vinnie about the foul habit of filling one's mouth with tobacco, and I bored listeners with Volkswagen rust stories. Cyrille looked on and probably wished he was back in Paris. My fortune cookie today at lunch read, "The night life is for you." Well, I reckon.
I remain your obediant servant,
Wes Clark