Welcome to the Kings Hammer Columbus June Newsletter! This edition features, Summer Camp Recap, Team Training Begins Week of August 3rd, Anthony Longo in Italy, Fall Juniors, GK Union Save of the Year, Featured Education: “A Letter from the Technical Desk: Start Strong. Stay Relentless.”, and more! If you have a player, coach, or team to be highlighted in future newsletters, please send photos and stories to dfry@kingshammer.com. Each newsletter will be posted on our website as well as our social pages.

A Summer to Remember: Thank You for Joining Our Camps

What a summer it has been! As our final camps wrap up this week, we want to thank all of the players and families who spent part of their summer with Kings Hammer.

From our World Cup Camps, Polaris Summer Camp, Goalkeepers & Strikers Camp, and Columbus Elite Summer Camp, players enjoyed evenings filled with skill development, competition, teamwork, and plenty of fun. It was exciting to see so many players challenge themselves, build confidence, and create lasting memories on and off the field.

A special thank you to our coaching staff for creating such a positive experience and to our families for making another summer of Kings Hammer camps a tremendous success.

We hope everyone enjoyed their time with us, and we can’t wait to see our players back on the field as the fall season gets underway. Thank you for being part of the Kings Hammer family!

Team Training Begins Week of August 3rd

We’re so excited to welcome our new and returning players back to the pitch for the 26/27 season! Team training begins the week of Monday, August 3rd for our U7–U14 age groups. All training schedules have been entered into the PlayMetrics system.

As we head into the new season, here are a few helpful PlayMetrics links:

• How to add additional family contacts to your account
• Adding the PlayMetrics app to your mobile device
• Using PlayMetrics as a Parent or Player

To ensure the best environment for you to thrive, please familiarize yourself with our pathway and leadership:

Direct support

• Soccer: Head Coach
• Admin: Administrator
• Soccer Leadership: Director of Coaching

Umbrella support

• Education: National Technical Director / National Director of Club Resources
• Organization: Hub General Manager
• Soccer Trainers / GK Director / GK Trainers

If you need anything at all, please first connect with your Head Coach and Director of Coaching. We believe communication is key.

All communication will go through PlayMetrics, and we are here to support your growth every step of the way. Go Kings Hammer!

From Columbus to Italy: Anthony Longo’s Unforgettable Soccer Journey

This summer, Kings Hammer Columbus Elite II U11 player Anthony Longo took his love for the game overseas for an incredible soccer experience in Italy.

Anthony trained with academy coaches from Inter Milan, fresh off a championship-winning season, toured the club’s training facilities, and trained alongside Chievo Verona before competing in a friendly match against their academy team.

His journey also included visits to some of Italy’s most iconic football venues, including San Siro, home to Inter Milan and AC Milan, Arena Garibaldi, and Stadio Olimpico, home to AS Roma and Lazio.

To cap off an unforgettable summer, Anthony was selected for the Columbus Crew Futures summer program for the 2015 age group, continuing his development ahead of the fall season.

Congratulations, Anthony! We can’t wait to see all you’ve learned back on the field this fall.

Fall Juniors: Where the Soccer Journey Begins

Looking for a fun and positive introduction to soccer? The Kings Hammer Fall Juniors Program provides young players with the perfect environment to learn the game, develop new skills, and build confidence on the field.

Designed specifically for U5–U8 players, our program combines age-appropriate instruction with exciting activities, small-sided games, and plenty of opportunities for players to grow while having fun.

Led by experienced, licensed coaches, Juniors focuses on creating a love for the game while teaching fundamental soccer skills in an encouraging atmosphere.

Program highlights:

• U5–U8 age groups
• Weekly training sessions and games
• Developmentally appropriate curriculum
• Licensed and experienced coaching staff

Whether your child is stepping onto the field for the first time or returning for another season, Fall Juniors is a great place to make friends, improve skills, and enjoy the game.

Registration for the Fall Juniors season is open. Click here to learn more and register!

Gear Up for the Fall Season

A new season is here, and there’s no better time to show your Kings Hammer pride! Whether you’re heading to training, cheering from the sidelines, or representing the club around town, our Fan Shop has everything you need.

Browse a wide selection of apparel, hats, accessories, and more—all available online through Soccer Village.

The Kings Hammer New Albany Fan Shop is open 24/7, making it easy to shop whenever it’s convenient for you.

Click here to shop and gear up for the fall season!

From The National Technical Desk: Start Strong. Stay Relentless.

August 3rd. That is the date on the calendar right now, and if you have been through a preseason with us before, you know what that date actually holds. Cleats crunching on fresh-cut grass. A ball popping between players who are still shaking off weeks of summer. Parents standing at the fence line, half excited and half nervous, not totally sure what to expect from the season ahead. A group of kids figuring out who they are as a team, one drill at a time.

That is the first day of the season. And I want to talk about what that day actually is, because it is easy to miss.

The first day of the season is not the exciting part. The exciting part comes later – the first goal, the first win, the moment a kid does something on the ball that makes the whole sideline gasp. The first day is quiet by comparison. It is repetition. It is a coach explaining the same drill for the third time. It is a player who has been on vacation trying to get their first touch back. Nobody is filming the first day of training. Nobody remembers it a year later.

But here is what I have learned after enough years in this game: the first day is where the season actually gets decided.

What the season starting really means

Every team that takes the field in October is a product of what got built in the weeks nobody was watching. The habits a player brings to a random Tuesday practice in August are the same habits they will lean on in a tied game in November when the whole thing is on the line. You do not get to choose which version of yourself shows up under pressure. You only get to choose which version of yourself you have been practicing all along.

That is the whole idea behind the KH Way. We are not just running training sessions and filling out a schedule. Every rep, every correction, every “again, faster, sharper” is us trying to build the version of a player who is ready before the moment that actually matters ever shows up. The standard we hold in a Tuesday session in preseason is the standard that shows up in a shootout in the spring. There is no separating the two.

Relentless Action starts before anyone is watching

We talk a lot about Relentless Action around here, and it is easy to picture it as the sprint back on defense or the dive for a fifty-fifty ball in a big moment. But Relentless Action starts long before that. It starts with a player who shows up to the first day of the season and competes in a rondo like it means something, even though nobody outside that field will ever know it happened. It is the discipline to bring full effort to the parts of the season that come with no crowd and no reward, because that is exactly what builds the player who can be trusted when the crowd and the reward finally show up.

Raising the bar is not a one-time event. It is not something you do once in October and then coast on. It is a decision you make on the first ordinary Tuesday of the season, and then again the next day, and the day after that, until it is not a decision anymore – it is just who that player is.

What I want from all of us this season

So as we count down to August 4th, here is what I am asking every coach, every director, and every family in this program to hold onto: do not wait for the big moment to bring your best. Bring it on day one, in the parts of the season nobody is going to remember. Build the habits in August that you want to be able to trust in November. That is how we develop players who do not just perform when things are easy – we develop people who are ready when things get hard, because they have already done the hard, unglamorous work of a hundred ordinary practices to get there.

August 3rd is coming. Let’s build it right, from the first rep.

Bring the Relentless Action.

– Bronson Gambale, KH National Technical Director

Save of the Year Winners Receive their Awards

Trophy time! Congratulations to Kings Hammer Cincinnati Goalkeeper Melody Ashbaugh and Kings Hammer Swan City Goalkeeper Ryder Gilliard on earning the 2025-2026 Aubrey Kingsbury Save of the Year! Well deserved recognition after both outstanding moments of brilliance in goal!

Thank you to our friends at Trophy Awards Manufacturing for this fantastic award!

Learn about GK Union Save of the Month

New to Kings Hammer and the KH GK Union? Get to know our GK Union Save of the Month and the Aubrey Kingsbury Save of the Year initiative!

Save of the Month

Each month, goalkeepers from across the club have the opportunity to submit their best saves from their Kings Hammer matches on our GK Union facebook page. At the end of each month, our National Director of Goalkeeping, Lou Liberatore, will select two participants, one boy and one girl, as the Kings Hammer GK Union Save of the Month winners. 

To enter your saves for a chance to be named our Save of the Month winner, goalkeepers from across the club should start by joining the Kings Hammer GK Union facebook page. You can upload your save videos to this page with your name, your team name and where the save took place.

Aubrey Kingsbury Save of the Year

The Aubrey Kingsbury Save of the Year was created in collaboration with USWNT and NWSL goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury who is also an alumna of Kings Hammer. At the end of the ‘26/’27 season, Aubrey will review all of the season’s Save of the Month winners and select a boy and a girl winner for Save of the Year.

We want to wish everyone the best of luck this season. We look forward to seeing everyone’s best saves and blocks!

Stay Connected with the Kings Hammer Family

Want to stay up to date with everything happening across the Kings Hammer Columbus family? Follow our social media channels for the latest club news, registration announcements, player and team highlights, event information, tournament results, and special features from around the organization.

Whether you’re part of Kings Hammer Columbus, Kings Hammer Barcelona, Kings Hammer New Albany, Kings Hammer Polaris, or cheering on Kings Hammer FC Columbus, our social channels are the best place to stay connected and celebrate our entire soccer community.

Be sure to tag us in your posts—we love sharing the memories and accomplishments of our players, coaches, and families.

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