April 28, 2011
Lobo Faithful:
This past weekend was the was the highlight of my coaching career! I say this with complete sincerity. Lobo Men’s Soccer hosted a banquet/fund-raiser for Alum Patrick Grange (diagnosed with ALS five months ago) on Friday night, April 22nd and hosted a silent auction/fund-raiser/alumni vs current Lobo match on Saturday the 23rd at the Lobo Soccer Stadium.
The banquet on the 22nd was a fairly intimate affair attended by 150 alumni, current team members and family, the Grange family and friends of the program. In addition to honoring Patrick Grange, we recognized Tom and Donna Ashwill (parents of alum Ben Ashwill who passed away in January of 2010), this years six seniors: Michael Reed, James Urbany, Ryan Farquharson, Andrew Parsons, David Murphy and Matt Armstrong and the 50 alumni in attendance. Stories were shared on Friday night, tears were shed and everyone came together as one big family and the shared energy was amazing. This is what Lobo Soccer is about: loyalty, helping a friend in need and coming together when times are tough.
Saturday nights silent auction/Grange Family fund-raiser/ALS fund-raiser/Alumni Game was attended by 3,000 Lobo Soccer Family members! Over $35,000 was raised for the Grange Family and for ALS research. Breath-taking!! If you weren’t in attendance, words can’t express the event. 3,000 people shared this wonderful evening with Pat, his family and our entire program. I’ve never felt this way in my 19 years of coaching. I was speechless. I felt completely fulfilled. This was beyond wins and losses….it was unbelievable and everyone shared in this feeling. A couple of links about the event are included here: a television piece on the event and some of the highlights from the match, both posted to Youtube. And here is a great article and photo gallery from our website.
Former Lobo soccer player and current Assistant Men’s Soccer Coach, Brandon Moss, spearheaded both events and special thanks go out to Brandon’s parents Wayne and Marcee Moss and his in-laws, Al and Cherri Porter, parents of former Lobo soccer player, Michael Porter. The entire event was staffed by volunteers and everything went flawlessly. This is the true spirit of the people of New Mexico! Please have a look at the video and photos. The entire Albuquerque community came together to share in this event. Volunteers and donors to the silent auction and game came out of the woodwork and people couldn’t do enough. Thanks go out to all of you. I can’t tell you how lucky I feel to be a part of LOBO SOCCER.
Sincerely,
Jeremy Fishbein