I'm going to start a new beat here: Olyblog soccer reporter.

This year there will be five real deal college soccer programs in north Thurston County. Both Evergreen and St. Martins (first year for the Saints) will have men's and women's programs and South Puget Sound has a men's side.

So, until November I'm going to do my best to get out to some games and tell you what I see. The first opportunity will be the Geoducks/Saints scrimmage this Saturday at 2 p.m. over at Evergreen. I don't know if I'll make it, but I'll try.

Here are the schedules for the rest of the season:

Evergreen men
Evergreen women
South Puget men
St. Martins men
St. Martins women

Both Evergreen and SPSCC play their games on the soccer fields behind the College Recreational Center at Evergreen (map). Saint Martins will play at the Lacey Regional Athletic Center (map).

Here are a couple of related projects:

Tolmie Cup

Since there are now five sides down here, its high time someone started a derby (and here) between the teams. So, I hereby start the "Tolmie Cup," which will be given to team (men's or women's) with the best season.

It won't be a proper derby, since none of the teams actualy play each other outside of scrimmages, but it will be interesting to see how each season compares.

Since all five teams play an unequal number of games, I'll award three points for a win, one for a tie (in accordance to FIFA rules) and then divide that total by the number of games played. So the winner will really be the team with the most points per game.

I'll post updates as the seasons progress.

Puget's Crew

I'm also interested in trying to track down a nice bar in town that shows soccer games, and some folks who'd like to watch soccer at a bar. So, I started a new social network called "Puget's Crew." If you'd like to get together, drink beer, and watch games on t.v. or maybe even carpool north to Sounders games, give it a look.