[trisoccerfan] Happy Holidays from Triangle Soccer Fanatics

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W. Jarrett Campbell

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Dec 26, 2008, 10:17:43 AM12/26/08

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Happy Holidays to All TSF Members

I hope you all are enjoying the holidays with friends and family, perhaps taking in a few of the Boxing Day English Premier League fixtures on television today. As the year winds down, here are a few club related news and event items I wanted to make sure you were aware of:

Meet the Coach a Success

Thanks to all the members that came out on a very chilly Saturday morning a couple of weeks ago to watch the RailHawks tryouts and meet our new coach Martin Rennie. Our new gaffer looks great on paper and is very personable and eager to get to know the supporters. At the meet and greet, Rennie made it clear that in his book, the only thing more exciting than achieving results on the field is sharing those results with the team's fans. He spoke admirably of the supporters of the Cleveland City Stars, so it sounds like we'll have big shoes to fill next season. For those that did not get a chance to meet Martin at the tryouts, we'll try to arrange another event soon with the new coach.

12 Days of Christmas

If you haven't noticed already, I'm running a series of posts over the next couple of weeks on the TSF site posting all the goal highlight videos from the past two seasons. By the time I'm done on January 5th, every goal highlight (which I have the posting rights to) will be linked from the TSF site. Only those goals from games shown on FSC (which I do not have the rights to use) will be absent. To watch the videos, visit the videos category on the TSF home page.

A Mission for TSF Members

I got a call this morning from Hamed Diallo, last year's leading goal scorer (amazingly, considering he didn't join the club until July 9th). Hamed is spending the off season in Paris with his girlfriend but he's eagerly looking forward to next season, the new coach, and scoring goals by the bucket full. He mentioned that his girlfriend, who is a model working in Greece at the moment, is looking for work in the United States so she can join Hamed here in the Carolinas next season. If any of you know anyone working with a modeling agency or someone that might be able to help her find some contact in the States to get work over here, Hamed would be extremely grateful if you could pass along their contact information to me so I can forward it to them in Paris.

USA v. Mexico World Cup Qualifier

In case you haven't heard, TSF has partnered with the American Outlaws, the fastest growing supporters club of the US National Team. Our first big event as a local chapter of the AOs will be the massive USA v. Mexico World Cup Qualifier on February 11th in Columbus, OH. For members (like myself) planning to attend the match in Columbus, through our partnership with AO, you will be able to buy advance, discount tickets in the supporters section before tickets go on sale to the general public. If you've never been to a USA national team match, this is THE ONE to go to! With non-stop flights on American Airlines (and one stop flights on Southwest and others) out of RDU from $179, it's a really easy trip (also, it's only 7-8 hours by car).   More details about tickets and our watch party for those not lucky enough to attend in person, will be coming in January. If you're interested in making the roadtrip, let me know so we can make sure we all get tickets together and organize some group activities in Columbus.

Time to Renew

Many of you have already renewed your TSF membership for 2009 (Thank You!). For those that haven't yet, please consider going online to our membership page and renewing your membership for next year. We've kept the membership price at $25 for next season but added the additional benefits of American Outlaws membership (a $15 value by itself). Remember, the club is completely member supported so your dues are the only means we have to defray the costs of our parties, tailgates, match day paraphernalia, etc. For those that renew by January 5th, we should have your membership packets ready to pickup at the USA v. Mexico watching party.

Please Welcome Your New Board of Directors

I want to publicly send a big THANK YOU out to three members who have stepped forward to help me run the day-to-day operations of the supporters club in 2009.   Greg Larance has volunteered to be our Director of Matchday Operations and will be organizing the tailgate parties and supporters section activites at games next season. Alice Meyer, in between raising 4 future RailHawks herself, has volunteered to be our Membership Director and will be responsible for making sure you all get your membership packets this Spring when the T-shirts and other free stuff comes in. And finally, Phillip Russell will be our Social Director for 2009. Phil will be organizing our events away from the soccer park, such as viewing parties for the US world cup qualifiers and for RailHawks away matches shown on Fox Soccer Channel.   Please join me in welcoming these volunteers to their new roles and please give them your support next year as they help me share in the responsibilities of running the club.

TSF Still Looking for Web Developers / Photographers / Videographers / Bloggers etc.

We are always on the lookout for folks to volunteer to help advance the supporters club. In particular, I am looking for those who can contribute both to the underlying design of the TSF website as well as content. If you have web development skills such as PHP, CSS, AJAX, MySQL, Graphic Design, etc. and would like to help me with the 2009 redesign I'm planning for the site, please contact me ASAP.   We are also looking for photographers / videographers / bloggers to add stories, photos, and videos to the site next season. If you're interested in contributing, whether on a regular basis or just occassionally, I'd love to talk to you about how you can join in the effort.

2009 Schedule Coming Soon

The USL generally announces their schedule for the upcoming year in January. Last season's schedule came out January 14th. Until that time, you might want to block Saturday, April 11th (Easter Saturday) on your calendars (wink, wink).

Cheers!