Monday, February 23, 2015

February Luncheon with Soccer Coach, Bruce Gochoel

President, Tom Callahan, opened the luncheon today with the Pledge of Allegiance, a reading of the minutes of January's luncheon, and a short-business meeting.

Jim Foster shared a recent trip he and A.J. went on to visit our legislators in Olympia. His reports coincides with THIS report distributed from our WSSRA Offices in Lacy, WA., on Monday of this week. (Click the link to read the report.) Some discussion ensued regarding the ease at which one can communicate with our legislators via email.  Their email addresses can be found in the monthly Hot Lines, and they are linked to this blog in the right margin.  Jim said only a couple of sentences are needed and the email can be sent multiple times until the bill either dies or makes it way to Governor's desk.  

One suggestion is to craft your email message in your word processor then copy and paste it into the email you have opened for each particular legislator.  Personalize it, "Dear Senator Hewitt," then click "send". This can be accomplished in less than half-an-hour.  

Jim Bumgarner reported the Pre-Retirement Seminar is planned with approximately 275 attendees at Southridge High School, March 12th, from 6 - 9 pm.

Dottie Stevens, Program Chair and VP, presented Bruce Gochoel, coach of the Kennewick High School (Go Lions) varsity soccer program, and the newly formed WSU TriCities Club Soccer Team.

Coach Gochoel has 37 years of soccer experience, from his years as a player to the present.  His experiences with soccer as a young man in Southern Florida and as a college student at DePaul University in Chicago trained him well as a premiere coach of two of our local youth soccer teams.

Gochoel says the level of soccer here is phenomenal. Not knowing exactly what to expect upon his arrival, he said he was impressed with what he found.  

He said, "coaching is all about trying to help kids, many of whom come to school due to the athletic programs they are involved with." He encouraged interested BFSRA members to volunteer some, even it means simply attending a game or two.  
Thanks, Coach, we will keep that in mind.