Welcome to the Kings Hammer Middle Tennessee October Newsletter! This edition features: Academy & Elite Girls Supplemental Tryouts, Winter Programming, Spring Rec, Juniors Cycle 2, Tent or Treat, Kings Hammer Wins, Strikers Cup, Featured Education: “A Letter from the Technical Desk: Which Risk Did You Take Today?”, and more! If you have a player, coach, or team to be highlighted in future newsletters, please send photos and stories to pmast@kingshammer.com. Each newsletter will be posted on our website as well as our social pages.
Academy & Elite Girls Supplemental Tryouts: Nov. 4th
We are holding supplementals for our Elite and Academy girls programs on November 4th .
U9-10 Academy girls will be at 5:30-6:45 PM, Academy and Elite girls will be at 7 – 8:15 PM at field 1.
Don’t forget to do your best and bring your A-game. We hope to see you there!
Winter Programs....loading.
This just in, we will be hosting some winter programs. Fend off those winter jitters and come join us on the fields!
There will be a wide variety of continuing programs or camps this January and February to keep you warmed up.
For more information on each winter program or to get registered click here!
Be first in line for Spring Rec!
Get excited, we are opening registration for the spring recreational season!
November 1st will be the official day that early bird registration opens, and it’ll remain open until Dec. 14th, so be sure to secure your spot.
This is the perfect program for first time soccer players or someone who wants to play casually with little commitments.
You do not want to miss out on getting a spot early! Click here to register!
Juniors are back and better than ever!
Juniors is back and we are so excited for cycle two! There are so many new and old faces that are itching to be back on the field and we can’t wait to see what they get up to this cycle.
Click here to see what we got up to on the first week of cycle 2!
P.S. Registration for the winter juniors program is NOW open! Click here to register today!
Tent or Treat
Bring your candy buckets and put on your costumes, it’s time for trick or treating! We are counting down the days until Tent or Treat on Halloween.
We will have three tents set up in the indoor building, just in the morning, and more tents at fields 12-15 by the concession building!
Tent or treat will be going on from 8 AM to 3 PM, so there is plenty of time for activities before or after games. It will be a spook-tacular time!
Kings Hammer Wins
Our teams have been killing it this month! There is no such thing as a “small” win to us because every win is worth celebrating. Congratulations, teams!
Here is a full list of all our teams who earned finalist, champion, or won awards this month:
Strikers Cup finalists and champions:
Academy U9 Grey Boys: Finalists🥈
Elite U14 NAL: Finalists🥈
Elite U14 GA Aspire: Champions🏆🥇
Academy U9 Blue Boys: Champions 🏆🥇
Falls City Festil-ville finalists and champions:
MLS Next U14: Champions 🏆🥇
District awards and winners:
1st Team All District: Caden Joseph, Lizzie Campbell, McKenzie Dugan, Allie Jackson, Anne Marie Beard, Sophia Morford, Emmie Bradley, Cammi Kiddoo, Ellie Sells, Madison Ulrich, Kaelyn Bush, Molly Glover
2nd Team All District: Kirsten Neal, McKinley Nickerson, Abbey Mott
District 8-AA MVP: Brindley Duncan
District 8-AAA Offensive MVP: Claire Morgan
District 8-AAA MVP / Midfielder of the Year: Malia Lawrence.
District All-Tournament Team: Brindley Duncan.
District Tournament MVP: Riley Howell.
District 8-AAA Tournament Defensive MVP: Madison Ulrich.
All District Defensive MVP: Ellie Sells
7-AAA Goalkeeper of the Year: Reagan Denton.
District 8- AA Midfielder of the Year: Lillie Bryant.
District 9-AAA Defensive Player of the Year: Brittain Rose.
District 8-AA All Tournament: Lillie Bryant, Molly Glover.
District 9A All District: Alayna Ormiston
Strikers Cup 2026
It was a rainy tournament weekend at Strikers Cup this year, but we persevered and it ended up being an amazing weekend! It was a blast seeing all the teams dress up in Halloween costumes and celebrate all the wins.
Click here to check out the tournament recap!
Special shoutout to all of our volunteers who helped us make this tournament a success. If you’re curious to see what it takes to get the fields tournament-ready, check out a behind the scenes look at this video here!
From The National Technical Desk: Which Risk Did You Take Today?
I was in a conversation this week about long term development, the kind that builds a player and a person and not just a result on a Saturday. Désiré Doué (the young PSG and French forward) came up, and what it is that makes him the player he is. Out of that came an idea simple enough to use tomorrow. After the next game, do not ask your child if they won. Ask them which risk they took.
I have been coaching a long time and I have asked a lot of post-game questions. That one is better than most of mine.
Here is why it matters, and why I want every Kings Hammer family to steal it.
The safe game is the expensive game
Most young players figure out early that the safest way to avoid looking bad is to avoid trying anything. Pass it sideways. Give it back to the defender. Use the strong foot every single time. Stay out of the duel you might lose.
That player will have a clean afternoon. They will also stop developing.
I have watched this happen to talented kids for the last twenty years. Somewhere around thirteen or fourteen, a player decides that not losing the ball matters more than learning what they are capable of. They get tidy. They get invisible. And by the time they are seventeen and the game asks them to beat somebody or break a line, the tool is not there, because they spent four years not building it.
The window for taking risks cheaply is now. At ten, a turnover costs nothing. At nine, nobody remembers the result. At twelve, a bad touch is a Tuesday. That luxury does not last. Ask any college coach what they are looking for and it will not be a player who has never made a mistake.
Growth is not a straight line
The other thing I am fighting, in myself as much as anyone, is the urge to believe development moves in a straight line.
It does not. It never has. A player will look sharp for six weeks and then lose their touch for three. They will be brave all spring and timid in September. They will be the best player on the field in one game and anonymous in the next, against the same opponent, with the same teammates. Parents see that dip and assume something is wrong. Usually nothing is wrong at all.
What actually happens in a good environment is that the floor keeps rising. The peaks and valleys do not go away, but the bad day at thirteen is better than the good day at eleven. That is the only measurement that matters, and you cannot see it week to week. You see it over years, which is exactly what the report cards are for.
Here is the connection to everything else in this letter. A player stuck in a valley is the player most tempted to stop taking risks, because risk feels expensive when nothing is going well. That is the moment it matters most. The way out of a dip is not playing safer. It is staying brave while it is uncomfortable.
If your player is in a rough patch right now, the environment they are in is doing the work. Let it.
The five risks we want to see:
These line up almost exactly with what our Game Model asks for, which is why I am putting them in front of you.
- 1.
Take the 1v1 in the final third. Every time it is on. They will lose it plenty. The one or two that come off create a goal.
- 2.
Play it forward. The square pass is always available and it is always safe. The forward pass is where games get decided.
- 3.
Use the weak foot in a match. Not just in training. It is on the report card for a reason. It only gets built under pressure.
- 4.
Go into every duel to win it. Not wild tackles. The genuine intent to win the ball every time there is a chance. They will lose plenty. Go win the next one.
- 5.
Ask for the ball right after a mistake. This is the hardest one and the one I care about most. The confident player wants it back after five errors in a row. The scared player hides. Asking again is uncomfortable, and it is the only thing that moves a player forward.
Read that list again and tell me it is not Relentless Action written out five different ways. Tenacity in possession. Effort out of it. Seizing the opportunity instead of waiting for a safer one. That is the KH Way, and it is exactly what your player’s coach is scoring on their report card.
What this asks of us, not them
Here is the uncomfortable part. Players take risks when the adults around them make it safe to fail.
If a kid gets beaten in a duel and hears a groan from the sideline, they will not go into the next one. If they try the weak foot and it skews out for a throw-in and they get a look from the car ride home, they will use the strong foot for the rest of their career. Our coaches have to protect risk-taking in training and in games. You have to protect it on the drive home.
That drive is where a lot of development gets quietly undone.
What I am asking of you
Next game, do not lead with the score. Ask which risk they took, and what they learned from it. Then listen to the answer without fixing it.
If they say they did not take one, that is not a failure either. That is the conversation starting.
A player who is willing to be wrong in public is a player who will keep getting better. That is the whole thing.
Bring the Relentless Action.
– Bronson Gambale, KH National Technical Director
GK Union Save of the Month
Big-time saves from our September GK Union Save of the Month winners! Liam came up with a full-extension save, and Caroline stopped two PKs in a shootout to help her team win the tournament! Congratulations to Liam from KH Elite Murfreesboro and Caroline from KH Elite Cincinnati on a job well done!
Did you make an incredible save or a game-saving block? We want to see them! Post your best saves in the Kings Hammer GK Union Facebook group. Be sure to share throughout the upcoming season and YOU could be selected for our Kings Hammer Save of the Month! GK Save of the Month winners will be announced the Friday of the first full week of the following month.
Monthly winners will be posted on the Kings Hammer social pages and on the GK Union page.
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