Jarom Jordan
jarom.jordan@byu.edu

PROVO, Utah (Dec. 14, 2010) — BYU men’s soccer general manager, Deniece Oates attended the annual United Soccer Leagues meetings in Florida to discuss the 2010 Premier Development League season.  The meetings were held in the Grand Hyatt in Tampa.

Here are some of the news and notes from the meetings:

-BYU will continue to play in the Southwest Division.

-The Lancaster Rattlers will not longer field a club.  That means the division will have eight teams and the scheduling will not be home and home like the 2010 season.

-The 2011 schedule will be released in the coming months with BYU playing Ogden four times.

-The Cougars will still be subject to the over age rule.  That is, a maximum of eight players who are 23 or older may be listed among the 18 on the gameday roster.

-The playoffs have changed in an attempt to cut travel costs.  The first round of the playoffs will feature the top two teams from each division, then the winner will face the winner of the Northwest Division.Tweet

Tryouts are February 24-26. (Daily Universe)

The BYU men’s soccer team will hold its annual tryout on February 24-26, 2011 in the Indoor Practice Facility (IPF) and Richards Building Turf (RB) on the Brigham Young University campus. The tryout schedule is as follows:

Thursday, February 24
6-9 a.m. (IPF)
5-7 p.m (RB Turf)

Friday, February 25
6-9 a.m. (IPF)
5-7 p.m (RB Turf)

Saturday, February 26
9-11 p.m. (IPF)

Eligibility

Tryouts are open to interested BYU students and potential incoming freshmen for the Fall of 2011. All incoming freshmen must have a completed application turned in. However they do not have to be accepted at the time of the tryout. All players on the BYU soccer team are full time, continuing students (12 credits per semester) at the university.

Tryout

The tryout begins on a Thursday in the Indoor Practice Facility. Tryouts will conclude two days later on Saturday night. Practice for the team will begin the following week. The team will train on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, from 6:30-8:50 a.m. (weight training included), and Saturdays from 5-8 p.m. Incoming freshmen who make the team will join the team immediately following their high school graduation.

The tryout will consist primarily of controlled (e.g., 1 touch) scrimmaging and fitness tests, including the beep test and cooper (2 mile) test.

Documentation

All players must fill out a proof of insurance form and provide an official BYU transcript (if a current student) and pay the $30 tryout fee prior to the tryout. This can only be done in person at room 112 of the Richards Building. After submitting these forms and paying the fee you will be given a tryout number to be worn during the tryout. This office is open from 6am to 10pm, Monday through Saturday. Athletes will need to register prior to the tryout date.

Contact Information

Mailing Address:
Chris Watkins
Head Coach, Soccer
Brigham Young University
206 Smith Fieldhouse
Provo, UT, 84602
cwatkins@byu.eduTweet

PROVO, Utah (Dec. 14, 2010) — During the 2009 season, freshman Matt Rider out of Salt Lake City, Utah started 15 of BYU’s 16 games.  He anchored the center of the pitch as the holding midfielder, scoring a goal and adding an assist.  Now Rider is in Lima, Peru serving as a full-time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Rider took a few moments earlier this week to share some thoughts with byusoccer.com.

Elder Rider (R) is serving in Lima, Peru.

I’m currently serving in the Peru Lima East mission. Right now I’m serving in a place called Cerro de Pasco. It is the highest city of its size in the world at 14,300+ feet above sea level. My stake center is the highest stake of the church in the world as well. So as you can imagine, the oxygen, or lack thereof, makes things a little difficult at times. But its alright because you adapt fast. I just had a week of no sleep and headaches.

The culture is incredible up here. Everyone is such a hard worker yet everyone is so patient and humble. I have had some of the most incredible experiences of my life serving my Heavenly Father up here. Although, the conditions can make work a little hard physically, the fact that I have been called by a prophet of God to preach his gospel gives my more strength than I’ve ever had before. Also even though I´ve given up two years of playing soccer for such an awesome university, I know that the Lord has something much greater in store for me if I remain faithful.

Elder Matt RiderTweet

PROVO, Utah (Dec. 14, 2010) — All of the players on the BYU men’s soccer team are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and choose to serve missions. As a sponsor of Brigham Young University, the Church fully supports athletics and subsequent missions for young men who wish to pause their academic and athletic experience to serve domestically or internationally. Every player will serve, is serving, or served a full-time two year church mission.

What is a mission?
The Church’s missionary program is one of its most recognized characteristics. “Mormon” missionaries can be seen on the streets of hundreds of major cities in the world as well as in thousands of smaller communities. More than 50,000 missionaries are serving missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at any one time. Most are young people under the age of 25, serving in nearly 350 missions throughout the world. Missionaries can be single men between the ages of 19 and 25, single women over the age of 21 or retired couples. Missionaries receive their assignment from Church headquarters and are sent only to countries where governments allow the Church to operate.

Matt Rider (L) is in Lima, Peru. Pedro Vasconcelos (R) will serve in Santa Rosa, California.

Missionaries do not request their area of assignment and do not know beforehand whether they will be required to learn a language. Prior to going to their assigned area, missionaries spend a short period of time at one of 17 missionary training centers throughout the world. There they learn how to teach the gospel in an orderly and clear way and, if necessary, they begin to learn the language of the people they will be teaching. The largest training center is in Provo, Utah, with additional centers in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, England, Guatemala, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, the Philippines, Spain and South Korea. A typical missionary day begins by waking at 6:30 a.m. for personal study. The day is spent proselytizing by following up on appointments, visiting homes or meeting people in the street or other public places. Missionaries end their day by 10:30 p.m. In some parts of the world, missionaries are sent only to serve humanitarian or other specialized missions.

Those missionaries do not proselytize. Missionary work is voluntary. Missionaries fund their own missions — except for their transportation to and from their field of labor — and are not paid for their services. Contacts with family and friends during this time of service are limited to letters and occasional phone calls to family at special times. Missionaries avoid entertainment, parties or other activities common to this age-group as long as they are on their missions, so they can focus entirely on the work of serving and of teaching others the gospel of Jesus Christ.

20 players from the 2010 Premier Development League roster served missions.

Name-State / Country Mission
Tyler Arens – Texas Fort Worth
Conner Bassett – Russia Yekaterinburg
James Bindrup – Russia, Siberia Novosibirsk
Bryan Black – Minnesota Minneapolis
Tyler Christiansen – Peru Trujillo
Doug Clark – Texas McAllen
Cory Cosgrave – Michigan Detroit
Zach De Francis – Germany Frankfurt
Zach Dupaix – Kentucky Louisville
Brent Jensen – Norway Oslo
Cameron Lamb – India, New Delhi Bangalore
Brady Marshall – West Virginia Charleston
Toni Niccoli – Italy Catania
Britton Osborne – Sweden Stockholm
Josh Patino – Nevada Las Vegas
BJ Pugmire – Mexico Guadalajara South
Jantzen Romney – Texas Houston
Blake Tillotson – Argentina Bahia Blanca
Drew Van Wagenen – Spain Barcelona
KC Whitworth – Brazil Ribeirao Preto

Current Cougars on Missions
Brian Hale – Germany
Richard Harrison – Accra, Ghana
Jordan Layton – Zurich, Switzerland
Nils Lofgren – Prague, Czech Republic
Bryson Pope – Taiwan
Jake Peterson – Leeds, England
Trevor Henderson – Toronto, Canada (East)
Pedro Vasconcelos – Santa Rosa, California
Will Burton – Puebla, Mexico
McKay Steggell – Yereva, Armenia
Nate Stoven – Charleston, West Virginia
McKay Corbett
Jace Green
Jon Junca
Colby Bauer

Recently Returned Missionaries
Easton Folster – Argentina
Garrett Losee – Puerto Rico
Derek Taylor – New Jersey

The following three players will leave for missionary service in the coming months.

Current Cougars with Mission Calls Waiting to Leave

Kip Critchlow
Cordoba, Argentina
February 9, 2011

Corey Krewson
Santiago Chile (East)
March 16, 2011

For more information on the LDS or “Mormon” church, visit www.mormon.org.  For more info on Brigham Young University, visit www.byu.edu.  Parts of the text above were contributed by Carey Hoki and Brett Pyne from BYU Sports Information.Tweet

“On the Pitch” is a series of web articles from BYU players.  This week senior defender, Tyler Christiansen shares his thoughts.

Christiansen leaps to deflect a cross against the U21 Mexican national team on May 12, 2010. (BYU Photo)

My name is Tyler Christiansen. I am a centerback defender going into my fourth season as a member of the BYU soccer team. I chose BYU over other soccer programs for many reasons. There is no other program in the country that can offer what this one can. From a competitive standpoint I’ve been able to play against teams like the MLS champs Real Salt Lake, and the Olympic teams from Mexico and Fiji. We practice and play in facilities that are second to none. But perhaps the biggest draw for me was to be part of a group of such outstanding guys who represent much more than a soccer team. Another reason I chose BYU was because as part of the offer, Coach Watkins guaranteed me a spot after returning from my mission.

I served my mission in the beautiful Andes of Peru. It was the greatest experience I could have asked for (until I married my beautiful wife, Mackenzie). I learned to serve selflessly, work diligently and that the most important service you can do for others is to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with them. My best memories as a member of this team have also been by providing service while representing our team, including a humanitarian trip to Nicaragua.

This time of year is definitely not the most glamorous time to be a college athlete, but its the time that can really define a player and a team. The coaches have outlined off-season workouts for all the players who were on our fall team and have left it up to us to do it. Between school and work it can be hard to find the time everyday to get out in the cold and run or strike a bag of balls, but we do it because we want to be a better team.

I really feel optimistic about next season for several reasons. First of all we had a great fall season, really dominating our competition. Another positive has been our early morning free-play sessions. The number of guys coming out in the mornings has been excellent compared to years past. I do not envy the job of our coaches come tryouts in February. We had 32 players on our fall roster, and have at least 7 return missionaries who will have guaranteed spots. From that very talented group of players the final roster will be closer to 20 guys. That fact is creating some great competition and really pushing everyone.

For my part I am extremely excited about our 2011 PDL season and what we can achieve as a team. As the returning leader for our defense I am very committed to help us become one of the top defenses in the league this season. We didn’t allow a single goal this fall season when our starters were on the field which is a good sign. Clay Christenson is our defensive coach and he has very high expectations of us as well. With that being said our biggest problem last year was finding the back of the net. We know it will take lots of work to be consistently effective on offense but we have the talent to do it.Tweet