The Sol were close to becoming two time defending NPSL champions, but losses in the ’07 & ’08 playoffs prevented that. “We use the previous losses as fuel.” Ziemer says of his team motivation for the NPSL season. The Sol may very well be paving the road for their first NPSL title. They are 6-0-1 in NPSL play with four games remaining, and are coming off a 10-1 thrashing of the Salinas Samba, their league rivals for many years.
After qualifying from the USASA Region IV tournament, they open the 2009 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup against the PDL’s Orange County Blue Star on June 9.
The team is truly a family affair, in many ways. First is the way the club is funded. Each player pays $500 each for the season, and they also raise money through hosting a golf tournament, and having friends and family volunteer on game days. Also helping fund the team is the Sol “100” Club, in which individuals who donate $100 towards the team receive a season pass, having their name mentioned on the team website and being honored at the final home game of the year.
In addition to running the club as a team, almost all of the players on the roster are locals. Many players have played, or still play, at Sonoma State, where Sol head coach Benjamin Ziemer is an assistant coach, under his brother Marcus, who has been head the head coach at SSU for 18 seasons. The other players on the team either attend Santa Rosa Junior College, or are local players who have played college soccer elsewhere.
Ziemer recalls when he applied to coach the Sol two years ago. “I told the board we could compete using primarily local players.” The success of the Sol has proven he was correct. “Although not all believed it (was) possible, we have 16 players from Sonoma County, another 5 who have been here 5-6 years to attend Sonoma State University and a few others who have moved from out of town for work.” Ziemer says.
On top of all that, Benjamin Ziemer and his three brothers grew up playing the game, and then some. As kids, they played the game on a small field their father built for them, which included lights, playing 1v1 and 2v2 for hours until they all moved away from home. When the boys were in their teens, a man named Peter Reynaud moved into their area, and the way they viewed and played soccer changed. Reynaud was the head coach at Sonoma State, and exposed the boys to a different way of training and playing.
Three of the brothers, Benjamin, Andrew, and Christopher, went on to play for Reynaud at Sonoma State for the 1989-90 season, and then for their brother Marcus for the 1990-91 season, when Reynauld stepped down to concentrate on the women’s team. During that first year, Sonoma State went undefeated, and the following year both the men’s and women’s teams reached the NCSAA Division II championship game.
While Marcus stayed on as head coach at Sonoma State, the other three Ziemer boys eventually made their way to Germany. The first to go was Christopher. After their father decided the cost of another regional camp was not worth the money. Right around this time a German team came to the area and played against Christopher’s ODP team, after which their father asked the German coach if he could set Christopher up with a youth team. Christopher then went to Germany and soon after called Andrew and Benjamin to come join him. Soon the three were playing in the 3rd and 4th division in Germany, the country where their father was born.
Andrew then went to Holland to study soccer and attend coaching courses, but he ended up playing with Quick Den Haag – a top level amateur club. While there he went to Ajax a few days a week to watch professional and youth trainings. During this time he met Frans Hoek, who working at Ajax. Frans has assisted the Ziemer brothers in studying at 50+ clubs in Holland, Spain, Belgium, Germany, England and Italy. Together, the brothers run Ziemer Brothers Soccer, where Benjamin has directed over 150 camps in Northern and Southern California, Oregon and Nevada.
In addition to all of that, Benjamin has also coached for the Olympic Development Program (ODP) State Teams, been a Hoek Method Camp coach for over eight years, currently holds a USSF ‘A’ coaching license and German ‘B’ license, currently manages the NorCal Premier Soccer League, and was recently named the boys soccer coach at Sonoma Academy.
One could say that the Sol and Sonoma State are one in the same. Three players on the Sol roster, Chris Daly, Tim Maycock and Brandon Boone, were on the team when that won the NCAA Division II Championship in 2002.
One player they will do without is Ross Middlemiss. After leading the CCAA in scoring this year with 18 goals and 45 points on his way to First Team All-American honors and capturing the Division II West Region player of the year honor, Middlemiss began the season with the Sol. Soon after, he was presented the opportunity to play for TSG Thannhausen of Oberliga Bayern (German fifth division). Middlemiss has left the team to prepare for his trip to Germany.
Another standout from Sonoma State’s 2008 campaign, were they were ranked #6 in the nation with a 15-2-4 record while winning the CCAA Championship, is Eric Lafon. Lafon currently leads the Sol with seven goals and six assists, and became SSU’s All-Time Assists Leader with 33 total assists. The team also has some veteran presence as well. Local product Shawn Percell led Santa Clara to the 1999 NCAA Final, and earned Final Four MVP honors. He has spent some time with Belmopan Bandits in Belize, before returning to the states to play with the Seattle Sounders for three seasons.
However, when asked who his standout players are, Ziemer has just one answer, “Our standout is the team.” Those words sum up what the NPSL club is all about, on and off the field.