Tournament season is upon us and already we have had some great results. Our U-11 girls Red team closed a successful spring season by winning the 2008 Real Colorado Cup. The team played in wind, rain, sun and more wind, traveling from Dick's to Dove Valley over the long weekend. Six challenging games later they had taken first place!

In the same tournament, our rec program's U10 girls team won in their first tournament playing 11-a-side. We look forward to watching the progress of the girls as they move to Blast over the summer.

As part of our plan to improve the level of coaching provided by the club, we were recently successful in an application for a substantial CYS grant to work with the Positive Coaching Alliance. The program aims to train coaches to become Double-Goal Coaches®, whose first goal is winning, and whose second, more-important goal is teaching life lessons through sports. This closely matches our club philosophy, which you can read on the front page of this website.

The PCA work across most sports and include prominent spokespeople, including Phil Jackson, Larry Brown, Ronnie Lott, Dean Smith, and Barry Zito.

For some players there is no such thing as too much soccer. Although the spring season is now officially over, we have created a list of summer camps being offered in the local area. Some of these are run by Blast but the majority are from outside groups. If you are looking for ways to fill up those endless weeks without school, why not check out some of the programs? Although we do not directly endorse any camps run by external groups, we have included all of the ones that have received good feedback from Blast players.

Click here to see the whole list.

Continuing our plan to increase communication within the club, we will now be publishing summarized versions of board meeting minutes on the website. The April minutes can be found here. It is hoped that this will give all members who are unable to attend meetings on a regular basis insight into what is happening at board meetings. summercamps.html

Check back regularly for the next month's installment. Also, all club members are welcome to attend the public part of our monthly board meetings.

Dr Dan Freigang gave a presentation on player motivation and psychological development to 240 parents, coaches, and players at Broomfield Auditorium. "Dr. Dan" is a well published author with over 100 scientific articles on mental training, self-confidence and game preparation. Dan is a unique blend of coach/scientist who clients include the US Men's Soccer team, and players and teams in the NHL, NBA, MLS,  and NCAA. 

Dano also took part in an interactive classroom session for the players currently enrolled on our 8 week psychology course, which focused on maintaining concentration. .

As part of our pre-season preparations, thirteen Blast sides took part in the annual Pueblo Sunbelt Classic tournament. Two of our U11 teams had great runs and narrowly lost in the final (U11 boys pictured here). The U11 girls made it all the way to penalites in their final game. Our U12 boys were also finalists after a string of solid performances.

Congratulations to the U14 girls who won the gold bracket in a thrilling penalty shoot-out, and also to the U13 girls who won their gold bracket with a convincing 2-0 victory. Check out the story in the local media.

Over the second weekend in February, the Blast U14 boy's white team took part in the Desert Classic tournament in Phoenix, AZ. The boys made the most of the 80 degree sunshine and green fields, producing a string of quality performances on their way to the final. Of particular note were victories over Xtreme (2-0) and Foothills Elite (3-1).

Faced with a final against an Elite level CCV Stars team from Arizona who had been playing constantly since September; Blast stepped up their game and were unlucky to go down 2-1 in the final minutes of the game.

Our U17 Girls Red team completed a successful trip to Cocoa Beach, Florida over the Christmas break. Competing against teams from around the country the team won all of their preliminary games and the final in an exciting penalty shootout. Going through undefeated in a highly rated College Showcase tournament was an outstanding effort. Congratulations girls or a great season and great tournament!

Six players were also selected to the tournament all-star game and several received invitations from college scouts watching the games.

Several Blast teams were invited to the first annual Westminster AFC indoor soccer tournament over the Christmas break. Our U13 Girls Red team managed to win out in their age group, with some impressive performances and a strong finish in the final. The tournament was very well organized and provided some excellent practice opportunities over the winter break.

Other noteable performances included our U14 boys team narrowly missing out on a place in the final after a good win over their Westminster rivals, and the U12 boys putting together two excellent performances against quality U13 sides from around the local area.

In the same winter indoor tournament, our U11 Girls Red team earned first place in the U11/U12 Girls Gold Division, held in late December.  The girls put on strong performances in all four games they played that day, with the championship game being especially exciting.  After going into a "sudden death" overtime the score remained tied at 1-1, until the shootout where we scored on our first shot and won 2-1.

Congratulations girls and good luck with the upcoming spring season!

Blast will be running an 8 week Player Psychology Course on Wednesday nights (7:00-8:00pm) from January 16th until March 6th. The course will be hosted at the Blast office. Topics to be covered will include setting individual goals, confidence and positive thinking, mental practice and visualization, focus and concentration, dealing with pressure, working as a team, and game day preparation.

Interested applicants should be U14 or higher and are strongly encouraged to pair up with someone else from their team (to work together on group exercises). We are specifically looking for players who are focused on improving themselves in the above areas. To apply, please contact the office by December 21st.

Broomfield will be hosting an official Grade 8 Referee Certification Class over the weekend of February 15th-17th. The class will run from 6:00-9:00pm Friday, then 9:00-4:00 on Saturday and Sunday, at the Broomfield Community Center. Download the registration form here.

The Grade 8 class is aimed at anyone 13 or older interested in becoming a fully qualified referee. You will be able to to sidelines and centers of any games around the state (for centers you can referee teams that are your age or younger). We strongly advise that at least one parent on each team has this qualification.

December 1st will mark the beginning of our 8 week speed camp program. With 115 registrants, this will be one of the largest programs ever run by the club, and the only one we know of of its type in the state. Paul Rask will be teaching the fundamentals of improving player speed, including the correct technique for running speed ladders. Other topics to be covered include strength, agility and proprioceptive training.  He will critique players’ running technique and teach his philosophy on stretching and functional training.

Best of all, the entire 8 week program costs just $10 per player. Sign up now!

Broomfield Blast are proud to have partnered with a sports dietitian. Georgianna Broadwell, MPH, RD, LD, will be running seminars over the coming months for a wide range of audiences, starting with the club coaches. Georgianna's services will also be made available to teams and individuals wanting to improve their performance by addressing the quality of their eating and drinking. All presentations and seminars include handouts of up-to-date sports nutrition information, possible handouts of new sports drinks and/or bars, and availability to set up discounted individual sessions.

Hockey Night!

Come watch the Rocky Mountain Rage take on the Wichita Thunder, Saturday, November 17th at 7:00pm. Broomfield Blast have partnered with the Broomfield Events Center to offer discounted $12 tickets to the game. Contact Doug Evans at (303) 800-2750 to reserve your seats.

The U11 Girls White team recently competed in and won their bracket at the inaugural Colorado Shootout. Back to back 4-0 wins over Bootleggers and Trebol guaranteed them a place in the final against Colorado Rush. What made the final even more exciting was that Blast narrowly lost 0-1 to the same team in the pool stage of the competition the day before. After some inspired coaching and incredible player performance on the field, the team stepped it up to comfortably take the final 4-0.

Congratulations girls, and good luck with the rest of the season!

Over the same weekend our U13 Girls Red team took part in the Vail tournament. With five games over two days in conditions best described as arctic wilderness the girls battled the top teams in the region and the elements to take first place. Averaging three goals per game, the weekend culminated in a strong 2-1 over Real Gold in the final. So motivated were the girls that after the game several asked the coach who they play next!

A special thank you must go to the parents who cheered as a team, and fed the players between games. Congratulations everyone!

Winter is in the air and we have signed up for facility rental at a new indoor soccer center at 94th and Raleigh in Westminster. Boasting a 200x85 ft field, with turf similar to that at the Broomfield Commons Championship Field, the facility should provide an excellent training environment for our teams for the next few months. Sessions will be 4:55-5:55pm Monday-Thursday, with three teams training simultaneously.

Check back soon for the schedule. Season One starts November 12th and runs until January 10th. Season Two starts January 14th and ends March 6th.