Portsmouth League champions

Here we see the victorious Portsmouth League Junior Division 1 champions for the season 1958/59.

The picture of Havant United comes from John Stokes, now of Hamble although he lived at Farlington in his playing days.

John says the team played all their home matches at Hooks Lane recreation ground, Bedhampton, on the No1 pitch, the one nearest the dressing rooms.

This has since been taken over by Havant Rugby Club and where there were once three football pitches there are now none.

Source : http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/no...

Today News: Smith takes over Richlands girls' soccer team

MAYSVILLE | New Richlands High girls’ soccer coach Stan Smith wasn’t feeling the heat on what was otherwise a hot day during summer league soccer game at the OCSA fields.

He appeared calm and collected as he tried to give breaks to his players during the middle of action, despite the Wildcats having a limited number of players to substitute.

“I’m not too nervous,” Smith said. “I’ve been doing this for a while now.”

The 24-year-old Smith was certainly in full coaching mode as he led Richlands during its summer league match this week. While young, he feels he’s ready for the challenge of being a coach, and he is optimistic about the Wildcats.

“I’m very excited about the opportunity,” Smith said. “We want to improve on this past season. Moving up into a new conference, it was tough and it was an adjustment. I have a young team. I’m going to have two seniors this year that I know of and a lot of freshmen coming in. This is the school I went to and I’m just ready to get into it.”

Smith takes over the helm at Richlands after longtime coach P.J. McManus retired at the end of this past season after the Wildcats went 8-13-1 overall, 2-10 in the Coastal Conference and advanced to the NCHSAA playoffs in their first year in 3-A after statewide realignment.

Smith is a 2008 graduate of Richlands, having played soccer his first three years before playing soccer as a senior.

“My dad was a football coach at Richlands and so I just felt like it was a path I was supposed to take,” said Smith, adding he first got into soccer when he was 5 years old. “I had a football injury, I broke some ribs, and it was just time to hang it up and switch back to soccer. I had continued to play soccer with most of the high school boys (outside of high school).”

After graduating, Smith went on to play soccer for four years at Mount Olive College. He just finished his second year as a math teacher at Richlands. Smith also spent the last two years helping boys’ soccer coach Mike Roed and worked this past girls’ season assisting McManus.

“After playing in college, I wasn’t ready to be done with soccer,” Smith said. “I started coaching while I was still in college, helping out with a travel team. I enjoyed it, watching (the players) wanting to learn and wanting to get better and improve.”

Smith feels he’s ready to be head coach, given his experience helping Roed and McManus. However, Smith added that he’s still learning the ways of his new job.

“Any time you are around people like P.J. and coach Roed who have done it for all these years, it helps,” he said. “By no means do I know everything and I’ll be the first to admit that. I’ve always looked for ways to learn. I’m currently coaching out here at OCSA and there’s numerous good coaches as well to work with and learn from. I’m always asking questions.”

Smith has two things in particular he wants to see from his program.

First, he wants to have a junior varsity team. The other is that he wants Richlands to be a possession-oriented team.

“We want to keep the ball because the more we have the ball the less they (opposing teams) do,” Smith said. “I was just telling the girls (during summer league) that we were letting the other team get too many shots. We have to make sure we are stepping to the ball, putting a lot of pressure on and play our game. We want to pass the ball around, find feet and have a lot of movement for each other and just really work for each other.”

MAYSVILLE | New Richlands High girls’ soccer coach Stan Smith wasn’t feeling the heat on what was otherwise a hot day during summer league soccer game at the OCSA fields.

He appeared calm and collected as he tried to give breaks to his players during the middle of action, despite the Wildcats having a limited number of players to substitute.

“I’m not too nervous,” Smith said. “I’ve been doing this for a while now.”

The 24-year-old Smith was certainly in full coaching mode as he led Richlands during its summer league match this week. While young, he feels he’s ready for the challenge of being a coach, and he is optimistic about the Wildcats.

“I’m very excited about the opportunity,” Smith said. “We want to improve on this past season. Moving up into a new conference, it was tough and it was an adjustment. I have a young team. I’m going to have two seniors this year that I know of and a lot of freshmen coming in. This is the school I went to and I’m just ready to get into it.”

Smith takes over the helm at Richlands after longtime coach P.J. McManus retired at the end of this past season after the Wildcats went 8-13-1 overall, 2-10 in the Coastal Conference and advanced to the NCHSAA playoffs in their first year in 3-A after statewide realignment.

Smith is a 2008 graduate of Richlands, having played football his first three years before playing soccer as a senior.

“My dad was a football coach at Richlands and so I just felt like it was a path I was supposed to take,” said Smith, adding he first got into soccer when he was 5 years old. “I had a football injury, I broke some ribs, and it was just time to hang it up and switch back to soccer. I had continued to play soccer with most of the high school boys (outside of high school).”

After graduating, Smith went on to play soccer for four years at Mount Olive College. He just finished his second year as a math teacher at Richlands. Smith also spent the last two years helping boys’ soccer coach Mike Roed and worked this past girls’ season assisting McManus.

“After playing in college, I wasn’t ready to be done with soccer,” Smith said. “I started coaching while I was still in college, helping out with a travel team. I enjoyed it, watching (the players) wanting to learn and wanting to get better and improve.”

Smith feels he’s ready to be head coach, given his experience helping Roed and McManus. However, Smith added that he’s still learning the ways of his new job.

“Any time you are around people like P.J. and coach Roed who have done it for all these years, it helps,” he said. “By no means do I know everything and I’ll be the first to admit that. I’ve always looked for ways to learn. I’m currently coaching out here at OCSA and there’s numerous good coaches as well to work with and learn from. I’m always asking questions.”

Smith has two things in particular he wants to see from his program.

First, he wants to have a junior varsity team. The other is that he wants Richlands to be a possession-oriented team.

“We want to keep the ball because the more we have the ball the less they (opposing teams) do,” Smith said. “I was just telling the girls (during summer league) that we were letting the other team get too many shots. We have to make sure we are stepping to the ball, putting a lot of pressure on and play our game. We want to pass the ball around, find feet and have a lot of movement for each other and just really work for each other.”

Source : http://www.jdnews.com/sports/l...