U10 Girls Red Named Ela Soccer Team of the Year

It was a full house at Ela Soccer Club's First Annual Awards Night.

Ela Soccer Club held its 1st Annual Awards Night, May 7,  at Lake Zurich High School to an overwhelming crowd nearly 1,000 players, coaches, parents, family members and friends. “To see our players filled with pride, excitement and enthusiasm brought home what a great club we have” said Jackie Marais, Ela Soccer Club's executive director Individual awards were presented to each team, for Players’ Player, Most Improved Player and Player of the year.  Players were also selected to represent an honorary Ela First XI team. All award winners are posted on the Ela Soccer Club's website.    The U10 Girls Red team beat out the U13 Boys Elite and U15 Girls Elite to take the team of the year award. This team coached by Gin Sharma, director of …

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Wake Up, Lake Zurich — Oct. 17

Get all the information you need to start your day, including where to find the lowest gas prices in your town, live traffic updates, weather and events of the day.

Patch wants to help make your life easier. So, at the start of every day, we're here to offer you all the information you need. We've done all the searching for you. All you've got to do is click to get your live, local information. In the event of something out of the ordinary, such as a major crash, Patch editors will update this as quickly and accurately as we are able. The Ela Soccer Club is holding a food drive for the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry. The food drive will take place from now until Oct. 23. Food can be dropped off at the Ela Town Hall from 9 a.m. until 8 p.m. Oct. 17-21, and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 22 and 23. Items needed include cereal, canned fruit, jelly, pasta, flour, sugar, toiletries, and one-pound bags of …

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The Sports Kat

Ela Soccer Club's New Assistant Director Will Wear Several Hats

New hire Richard Drake will also serve as club's high school programs director and elite staff coach

The Ela Soccer Club has announced the hiring of Richard Drake as their full-time assistant director of coaching, high school programs director and elite staff coach. Drake will oversee an organization that includes 1,200 participants. Drake has been the assistant women’s soccer coach at Loyola University for the past six years. Before that, he served as an assistant coach at DePaul, Marshall, University of Minnesota and University of Cincinnati. Drake has a total of 14 years of experience as an assistant coach. In charge of player recruitment and team training during his tenure at these NCAA Division I programs, Drake saw his teams log six NCAA playoff berths. Besides building the high school and elite level programs and assisting players …

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The Sports Kat

Spring Sports Have Sprung

Lake Zurich High School's baseball, lacrosse and soccer seasons are warming up with the weather

Spring is here, which means that baseball, lacrosse and soccer are flourishing at various community, park and recreation department and school fields throughout Lake Zurich and the surrounding Ela Township environs. Lacrosse in particular is gaining traction as an increasingly popular youth sport, similar to where soccer was 15-to-20 years ago. The Lake Zurich High School Boys Lacrosse Team is a steadily improving squad. Currently at the B level in the North Suburban Conference, they’re starting to look like they’ll be able to bring it against some of the upper-tier A level teams. “We’re pretty talented this year,” first-year coach Kyle Dresser said. “We’re fast and athletic and we have a number of guys who can shoot the ball.” The Bears …

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Ela Soccer Club Gains Use of Deer Park Fields

Agreement with Village of Deer Park lasts 12 years.

Ela Soccer Club has reached a 12-year soccer field development and usage agreement with the Village of Deer Park.   “This is a win-win partnership that will develop two much needed additional premier soccer field areas for use by Ela Soccer,” said Doug Anderson, president of Ela Soccer. “Ela Soccer is honored and excited to be working with another first class and professional government entity. The elected officials of the Village of Deer Park along with the Village of Lake Zurich and Ela Township clearly understand the contribution that Ela Soccer makes to the community and embrace continued long term mutually beneficial relationships that directly impact the areas youth.” Under the terms of the agreement, Ela Soccer Club will develop two…

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Ela Soccer Club Concludes Its Fall Season

Three of the elite girl's teams played in November 6 tournament in St Louis.

Capping off the fall season, Ela Soccer Club sent three of their girl's teams--the girl's under 15, under 17 and under 18 - to aSaturday and Sunday, Nov. 6-7,  tournament in St Louis. Unfortunately, all three teams were defeated and unable to advance to the semifinals, which would have taken place on the second day of the tournament. "The 15-year-olds played very well overall," said Sharma. "There was a  21-minute spell where they didn't play that well. But other than that, they played really well." The 15 under team finished 2-1 in the tournament. After losing 4-0 to the BVSC Stars Ajax, they defeated the Rockford Raptors 1-0 and the Mid Rivers AC Azzurri team 2-0. They finished second with six points in their tier of the tournament. The …

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Ela Soccer Club Going Strong After 25 Years

Organization has been teaching youth finer points of soccer since 1985.

Soccer is known as the most popular sport in the world—and it's also got a foothold in Lake Zurich. Ela Soccer Club has more than 1,200 participants and 1,000 families involved. It is the youth soccer program that serves Lake Zurich, Hawthorn Woods, Deer Park, Kildeer, Long Grove, North Barrington and other surrounding towns. That makes Ela Soccer Club one of the largest youth sports organizations in the greater Lake Zurich area and one of the largest youth soccer programs in northern Illinois. Dependent entirely on volunteers,  the non-profit organization has been teaching area children and teens from 4 to 18 years old since 1985. Assistance also is available for families that are going through financial hardship, with different options …

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