Dear Rush Membership:
Welcome to an exciting 2021-2022 soccer season. The last year was a challenging one on many fronts but I am so proud of how our entire soccer community came together and rose to the occasion ensuring a successful year of training, competitions and growth. It was a historic tryout for Rush and we have added many new families to the club.
As we start the year I want to take this opportunity to celebrate the contributions of a number of people that will be leaving us for this upcoming season and welcome a new and incredible group of professionals that we are adding to our staff.
I regret to inform you that Oli Olafsson, Rush Director of Coaching, will be returning permanently to Iceland at the end of July to be closer to family, especially his children and grandchild. Oli has played a major role, as Director of Coaching, in the resurgence of Rush in the last few years. He will be sorely missed and I hope you will join me in expressing our deep appreciation for a tenure well served.
Jen Barker, former Director of Administration, started her job in Dallas early this summer but she has been helping our new administrator Annie Amendt with ongoing training and taking an active role in team formation, registration and uniform ordering for the 2021 season. She will be officially ending her formal involvement with us by the end of this week. She has been an invaluable support to all our families these last 4-5 years and will be dearly missed.
Jessica Nash, Director of Coaching for the Youth Development Academy (YDA), will be stepping away from that role and taking on the far more important and cherished role of being mother to Baby Michael. We are extremely fortunate that Jess will stay on in an advisory role to the YDA and perform a few key functions over the course of this year.
We are, however, incredibly fortunate, to have a deep and talented pool of professionals on staff and we are elated to announce a number of exciting new and current staff that will be stepping into key positions of leadership.
Roy Patton has agreed to come on board as our new Director of Coaching. His candidacy was endorsed by Oli Olafsson and we are all in agreement there is no one more qualified and capable of expanding on the great foundation Oli has helped establish and take Rush Soccer in this area to the next level. Roy Patton has been a professional coach for 40 years coaching at the NCAA Division 1 level, was the Region 3 ODP Director, a former professional team coach, former Director of Coaching and Technical Director in multiple clubs around the country. Roy has a USSF 'A' License and has his Doctorate in Education for Sports Management. On a personal level he has been a great mentor and friend and I am incredibly excited for our membership to get to know Roy Patton. Roy's primary focus will be to support the coaching staff and to implement best practices to enhance player and team development.
Matt Tebo will be our new Assistant Director of Coaching. Matt has been on staff for the last 8 years and has played a critical role on the Rush Leadership Team. While Matt is a very experienced and valued coach, he is particularly adept with providing administrative support to the Director of Coaching position. There are a lot of logistical challenges in managing schedules, tracking club passing, registering for tournaments and a host of other tasks to ensure operations run smoothly. Matt's experience in this area will be an important resource and support to the club and its coaching leadership.
Annie Amendt is our new Director of Administration. She has done a great job of adjusting to the demands of her position thus far. Annie is continuing to learn and receive training in her position but she has certainly hit the ground running and we are grateful for her commitment and dedication to the staff and membership.
Bennie Delgado is our new Coordinator for the Youth Development Academy. He will be responsible for oversight and staffing of the program. Bennie was formerly a Chicago Fire Academy player and is a Special Assistant with Forward Madison FC. Bennie also works in the McFarland school system and is the boys and girls coach at Madison Country Day School. I cannot wait for our parents and players in the YDA program to meet Bennie and benefit from his great coaching, energy and enthusiasm for the game.
John Dillon is a new hire on the coaching staff at Rush. John was a top coach at Sun Prairie Soccer club working with the goalkeepers and coaching some of the MRL teams in that club. John will be assigned to coach our goalkeepers along with Ian Murphy. We are extremely fortunate to have someone of John's caliber and experience to take over Oli's 2008 Boys team assignment and provide much needed support, experience and direction with our goalkeepers.
Mara Wytenbach is a new coach and trainer that will be assigned to our younger girls teams. Mara is a decorated former NCAA Division 1 player and was co-captain of the WPSL Lady Blues team that finished in the top 4 in the country. She is also co-owner of LIFT Training, a sports performance program in Middleton, WI that Rush promotes and endorses. She is by far the toughest, most intense and fittest player I've ever had the pleasure to coach. Her experience and passion for the game will be a tremendous resource to our younger girls teams.
We are thrilled to announce that Rush Wisconsin is contracting with The Chad Wissler Academy. Chad was the former Director of Coaching at Sun Prairie Soccer Club and Senior Trainer and he will be offering all Rush players an opportunity to participate in his Academy Training Program. Chad has his Doctorate in Physical Therapy and he played soccer at a very high level in nationally ranked competitive soccer clubs. Additionally, he had a successful college career playing for the Men's Soccer Program at the University of Toledo. The Chad Wissler Academy program is a significant program offering for our players who will be challenged to improve their technical and physical prowess through structured activities with Chad and his staff. We will be opening up registration this next week. Space will be limited so sign up as quickly as possible.
In the coming weeks, you will hear about a couple more coaches we are going to add to the ranks of our coaching staff. This is an exciting time of growth for our club and we are so fortunate to keep adding to the coaching talent and continue to provide the best resources and invest in the development of our players and teams.
While change is never pleasant, especially when it involves such a talented and endearing group of colleagues, we are excited for the opportunity that is represented in a new staff to impact the development and engagement of our members. I look forward to sharing more details as we move forward.
Sincerely,
Ben John
Technical Director, Wisconsin Rush