From the Desk of Randy Denton - FC Alliance Knoxville

From the Desk of Randy Denton

FC Alliance President

Presidents Letter March 18, 2010
FC Alliance and KFC and Policy 26
March 18, 2010

Greetings soccer Friends and Families,

Great things are happening in the Knoxville soccer community! By now most of you have heard the rumors and speculation of the discussions that have been ongoing between the KFC and FC Alliance. I want to give all of you and update and a glimpse of the path for upcoming months. Everyone should understand that this process really began 2 years ago when representatives from KFC, SMSC and Impact met to discuss the possibility of working together to form one club in Knoxville. Everyone recognized at that time that the benefits from such an endeavor were enormous for the young men and women players and the sport of soccer as a whole in this area. At that time Impact and SMSC decided to move forward and form FC Alliance. The underlying idea was to leave everything behind and form something better for players and the soccer community. One year ago the newly formed FC Alliance once again went through a series of meetings with KFC in an attempt to complete the original dream. Approximately 4 weeks ago the coaching Directors of KFC, with the support of their coaching staff, approached FC Alliance to see if we could finally bring the vast majority of the players and coaches together and complete the “Alliance” that was envisioned 2 years ago. I won’t even attempt to relate to you the details of the meetings, discussions, phone calls, and emails that have been involved in these discussions over the last 4 weeks. On Monday night March 15^th the KFC board of directors voted to support and release their coaches and players to pursue the transition of all willing teams to FC Alliance. The official KFC letter to their members was released this morning and is posted on their website. Currently all the KFC coaches have committed to joining FC Alliance at tryouts. At this time there is some uncertainty about how and what we can discuss with other parents and players from KFC. We are currently in discussions with TN Soccer about relaxing some of the Policy 26 restrictions to allow for an open dialogue between the 2 clubs. For now ASSUME POLICY 26 IS IN EFFECT. DO NOT INVITE OR RECRUIT ANY PLAYERS FROM KFC OR ANY OTHER CLUB. The stage is now set to finally realize the dream of creating the finest soccer club in Tennessee with over 1000 players of all ages and abilities.

Clearly this process is going to create tremendous challenges and opportunities. I am sure we all can easily envision the benefits of the new larger FC Alliance. I am also sure that many questions immediately come to mind. Who will be my coach? Where will I practice? Who will be on my team? First our fundamental principle to provide the best coaches available to all players of every age and ability will not change. We are working feverishly to develop a comprehensive plan and coaching structure to ensure this principle carried into the future. As these plans are finalized we will be releasing the details and exciting new opportunities for everyone that loves soccer in the Knoxville area. As we begin this transition I would urge you to consider something that has become quite clear over the last few weeks, namely that the coaches and families of the 2 organizations have much more in common than any of us wanted to believe. The intense competition between KFC and FC Alliance over the last couple of years has created a false impression of some type of philosophical canyon between the players and coaches in the two clubs. I am here to tell you that these impressions are almost entirely unfounded and untrue. Essentially we are all just soccer moms, dads and players who love this game. We are coaches who love the game and love teaching it to young players. We all recognize the investment in club soccer is more than just about winning a game, tournament or title. It is about the friendships, the discipline, the hard work and the lessons learned that helps turn soccer players into young men and women that we are proud of and love unconditionally. I know that you join with me in saying: Finally it’s happened!

See you on the pitch,

Randy Denton, President FC Alliance for the Board of Directors and all the Coaches from KFC and FC Alliance.

January 2010 Presidents Letter
Greetings Soccer Friends and Families,

Would you believe that great things continue to happen at FC Alliance? I have to admit sometimes I am amazed at how fortunate we are to be a part of such a great organization. I am convinced that when you build a great team of people from the Board, to the coaches, managers, and the players themselves success will follow. I want to give all of you a brief update from "the top" about many of the exciting things happening at your club-FC Alliance. By the way, if you are not getting our weekly or so club news email (masterfully overseen by Colleen Webb) please go to our website and sign up. If you have news about your team, please send it to her. We want everyone to feel that they are a part of something more than just one team. We want to share your success with the whole club.

First, I am asking for you support of our pre-academy. We have a fancy new brochure that will be going out very shortly. I will attach a copy to this letter. Share this with you friends who have children from 6 to 8 years old. Clearly the future growth and success of the club starts in the pre-academy. Under the new direction of Brazilian Coach Claudio Rico, we have a great program in place. I guarantee that any child or family you send his way will thank you for the positive and fun experience. Here are a few "bullet points" about our program:

Program has grown from about 50 in the fall of 2008 to 125 this past fall
Would like to have 200 kids involved
Great feeder program for the club and if we do a great job in the Pre Academy it makes for natural teams at the U8 age group
Super value at $125 to include 2 Shirts and professional coaching
Lady Vols, former FC Alliance "graduates" and other great coaches involved
Rico will be leading this spring...Brazilian superstar and general nice guy
Same convenient schedule for parents who can select from 3 sights and 3 nights per week a practice schedule that fits their schedule
All Saturday game days come with a "Weatherproof Guarantee" as they will be held at Johnny Long Training Academy in the Indoor/Outdoor Turf Facility

Secondly, our new home is almost ready! Many of you have seen the new indoor facility at Johnny Long’s. We are excited that futsal will be starting up this week and soon we will have an office and meeting room for our use at this new facility. I encourage all of you to make use of this excellent training opportunity offered to our club. I would encourage you to talk to any of our players who have trained with Mr Long and his staff. They are top notch and very professional.

Thirdly I want to share with you some upcoming changes in our excellent staff. Some of you may have heard that our Academy Director, Allan Fincher, will be returning to his home in Texas at the end of the spring season. We all understand how having children changes our perspective. Allen and his wife have decided to return closer to home with their young daughter to be closer to their extended family. While we will certainly miss his excellent coaching and even his unique personality, we certainly wish him nothing but the best. But we are not finished with him yet. His is currently working on a comprehensive curriculum for our academy and he has the opportunity to work closely for the next 6 months with his successor, Australian born, Steven Townley. For those of you who don’t know Steven we will be sending out a full bio on him in the next couple of weeks. But in brief he is a former professional soccer player from Australia who currently teaches elementary school in Loudon County. We feel that his demeanor, his background in educating young students and his soccer expertise make him uniquely qualified to fill the position of Academy Director. You will be seeing a lot of him on the pitch in the next few months. Take the time to get to know him, I feel confident you will be impressed.

Fourthly, I hope you have taken the time to follow our website and note the remarkable success we had in the fall at the state tournament or if you prefer just look at the state web site and note how many FC Alliance teams are listed. For a club that is only 18 months old, we have had tremendous success at all levels. Our fall tournament was a great success. We continue to believe that we have a group of coaches and players second to none! We continue to support the best coaching staff anywhere. We continue to believe there is a place for everyone who loves the game at FC Alliance.

Lastly some odds and ends, we continue to work toward our goal of lighting a second field at Alliance Park. We are looking forward to the opportunity and challenge of managing the US Cellular complex of fields. We are already planning summer camps and tryouts. (dates are on the club calendar) We are still planning on having a club wide meeting in the near future. ( Yes it’s my fault it has been delayed-I have just been so busy in my real job that I haven’t gotten the details worked out). We are looking forward to a great spring season. Our 2 college showcases are fully booked with great teams-we even had to turn away some teams. For our younger teams, be sure and come out and watch some really great soccer. The building process is already underway for the spring tournament. One final note I want you to be aware of. I received a note from a very pleasant fellow from FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) who said there has been some confusion because of the similarity of our two names especially if abbreviated (FCA vs FCA?). I would ask that you do not use the abbreviation FCA. Please always specify FC Alliance.

I know all of us have been deeply moved by the tragedy in Haiti. Many of you know that one of our long time coaches, Luc Dessieux, is from Haiti and his father is a long time minister in that country. The Rev. Dessieux is organizing relief through his ministry in southern Florida. I have included below a note from Luc about his father’s efforts and I am sure any help you may choose to send will be greatly appreciated.

Dear John,

Thank you so much for your offer to help. Any help to Haiti means so much to us. We are still waiting to hear from our relatives, only heard back from one uncle and he is fine. My father is the main Haitian minister in Miami and he has a mission set up. They will be sending packages down to Haiti starting next week. They are still collecting donations/supplies. If anyone is interested in helping they can either send money directly to his mission and they will purchase stuff in Miami and ship to Haiti. They can also send any clothes, toothbrushes, toothpaste, meds (tylenol, advil, etc) to Miami and they will send it to Haiti. My father’s name is Rev. Luc Dessieux, checks can be written to Bethesda Haitian United Methodist Mission, the address is 6901 NW 70 Ave. Tamarac, FL 33321 (they can provide you tax exempt paper). Put it to ATT: Rev Luc Dessieux

THANK YOU ALL and God bless.

Luc Dessieux, MS

See you on the pitch,

Randy