As always it was another successful Alumni Weekend! Thanks to all of the volunteers that helped out to make the weekend a great success – including the Hoefler’s for the catering, Daina Brauns for all of the hard work transforming the Latvian Church into Ravens Alumni Central, and all those who helped set-up and clean-up.
Saturday started off with the Alumni “kick-about” in the field house that as no surprise went from a friendly kick around to a full on competitiveness match at the end. Mike Hoefler won for the most subs ever in a kick-about, subbing off every 3 to 5 minutes (although he claims he was having trouble breathing in the field house.)
After showering up the Alumni met for pizza and beverages and shared stories from a great summer. That continued over to the Varsity match where the alumni were very vocal in cheering on the lads. The beverages continued during the halftime tailgate and then back to cheering on the lads in the second half, resulting in a Varsity comeback victory!
Following the match the annual Alumni Dinner was held at the Latvian Church. We had a little over 60 people in attendance for the dinner with everyone looking very dapper. The food was excellent as always and the speeches were something to look forward too. This year we were blessed to have as a guest speaker Brian Burns, coach of the first Carleton Soccer team and major player in the creation of the modern day program we all support and love. Brian gave a great story of his time in charge and how things first got started including bringing along his precious prize and the very first silverware Carleton ever won in 1981! (Bishops Invitational Tournament) Thank you Brian for attending and sharing your fond memories and we look forward to seeing you at future events and matches.
Next up was a few special presentations. The Alumni Executive presented the Mike Lanos award to a very worthy recipient: Joey Kewin (Joey gave an emotional speech). The Exec also presented and welcomed the one graduating player and new Alumni member with a framed portrait to Sam “Rooney” McHugh. Coach Sandy Mackie as always pleased the room with his words of wisdom. Sandy was also the lead in presenting a massive thanks to someone very special to the Carleton Soccer Program who has dedicated many years and hours to all of the Varsity Soccer Athletes and we were happy to host her surprise 40th Birthday celebration for the one and only: Nadine Smith.
The night continued at Woody’s Pub in the market where one of the original Alumni members Ian Martin met up to share some fond memories of his time with the program.
Sunday the festivities continued as the Alumni gathered for the Laurentian match and tailgated the gorgeous day away. Although the final result in the Varsity match left a sour note to the conclusion to the weekend it was still another great Alumni Weekend!
We want to thank everyone who came out and participated in the weekend’s events. It is always a great weekend and we are already very eager for the next Varsity home game and hopefully a good play-off run! The next major event to look forward too will be the Indoor Tournament in which we will keep you all informed of.
Again thank you to all those who participated.
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