Welcome to the Kings Hammer October Newsletter! This edition features: Supplemental Tryouts, Volta Futsal Training, Winter Programming, Welcoming Skylin Yates, Hammer Out Cancer Event Success, Celebrating our Coaches, Girls Elite Talent ID Invitations, Featured Education: “A Letter from the Technical Desk: Which Risk Did You Take Today?”, and more! If you have a player, coach, or team to be highlighted in future newsletters, please send photos and stories to info@kingshammer.com. Each newsletter will be posted on our website as well as our social pages.
Supplemental Tryouts
Tell your friends! We’re looking for players in the Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky area to join our Academy program! For more information, times, and to register, click the links below:
Academy Warren County | Academy Sycamore | Academy Northern Kentucky
Volta Futsal Training Opportunities
We’re excited to offer Kings Hammer Volta Futsal opportunities this winter in Northern Kentucky and Mason, Ohio. Volta Futsal provides a fast-paced, small-sided environment that complements outdoor soccer by increasing touches and developing technical skills, creativity, confidence, movement, decision-making, and speed of play.
Volta Futsal – Training Only: Additional technical training without the competition component, offered in Northern Kentucky and Mason for U6–U18.
Winter 1: November–December | Winter 2: January–February | $150 per session
Click here for more information & to register!
Questions? Contact Adam Sonnett at asonnett@kingshammer.com.
Winter Programming Now Available!
2026-2027 Winter Programming is here! Keep your skills sharp this winter with camps and training sessions led by our Program Directors, available for players U8-U19.
Learn more and register today!
KH Welcomes Skylin Yates as Goalkeeper Director
We’re excited to welcome Northern Kentucky native Skylin Yates as the new Goalkeeper Director for our Cincinnati hub and leader of GK Union! Skylin brings extensive playing and coaching experience, most recently serving as Goalkeeping Director at Racing Louisville, where she oversaw U11–U19 goalkeepers. With a USSF C License and experience at both the collegiate and youth levels, she’s ready to lead the next chapter of goalkeeper development at Kings Hammer.
Click here to read the full press release!
We also congratulate Garrett Loehr on his new role as Goalkeeper Director with the Portland Timbers MLS Academy. Thank you, Garrett, for your leadership and impact on our goalkeepers. We wish you all the best in this next chapter!
Join us in congratulating Garrett and welcoming Skylin to the Kings Hammer family!
Hammer Out Cancer Reaches Fundraising Goal!
Goal achieved! Thanks to the incredible support of the Kings Hammer community, our annual 2026 Hammer Out Cancer 4v4 Tournament raised $2,000 for the Susan G. Komen Foundation!
A special shout-out to Warren County & Sycamore DOC Jessica Ingram for her hard work in organizing this fantastic event.
Congratulations to our raffle prize winners: Isaiah B. took home a Rose Lavelle autographed jersey, Brooklyn M. won a signed FC Cincinnati soccer ball, and Scarlett S. received an autographed jersey from Racing Louisville FC’s Jordyn Bloomer.
Thank you to everyone who participated, donated, and helped make this event a success. We’re proud of what our Kings Hammer community accomplished together!
Celebrating Our Kings Hammer Coaches!
Four hubs. Nine locations. One club. This month, we celebrated National Coaches Day by recognizing the hundreds of coaches who make a difference across Kings Hammer! From our youngest U4 players to our U19 Elite athletes, our coaches do more than teach the game, they mentor, inspire, and help shape the next generation both on and off the field.
A huge thank you to all our Kings Hammer coaches for your dedication, passion, and the impact you make every day. We appreciate you!
Girls Elite Talent ID Invitations
Congratulations to Katherine, Gabrielle, Katelyn, and Parker from our Kings Hammer Girls Elite Program on their invitations to the U.S. Soccer Youth National Team Talent ID Center!
We’re proud to see their hard work and dedication recognized at this level!
Aniah Earns National Recognition
Congratulations to Aniah Zembrodt of our KH Elite GU16 Girls Academy team on an exciting pair of opportunities! Aniah was invited to a week-long training opportunity with Gotham FC and called up to the upcoming U.S. Youth National Team domestic training camp roster.
We’re proud to see Aniah’s hard work and dedication recognized at the highest level!
Blue Chip Juniors Highlights
A weekend full of skills, saves, and goals! Check out the best moments from the 2026 Blue Chip Juniors and catch all the action from an unforgettable weekend!
KH Elite Girls Night with the Bearcats
Our Elite Girls Program enjoyed the full Cincinnati Bearcats Women’s Soccer experience at Kings Hammer Night! From behind-the-scenes facility tours and walkout tunnels to halftime contests and postgame celebrations with the Bearcats players, it was a night to remember.
A huge thank you to the University of Cincinnati for hosting us and making it such a special experience for our players!
From The National Technical Desk: Which Risk Did You Take Today?
I was in a conversation this week about long term development, the kind that builds a player and a person and not just a result on a Saturday. Désiré Doué (the young PSG and French forward) came up, and what it is that makes him the player he is. Out of that came an idea simple enough to use tomorrow. After the next game, do not ask your child if they won. Ask them which risk they took.
I have been coaching a long time and I have asked a lot of post-game questions. That one is better than most of mine.
Here is why it matters, and why I want every Kings Hammer family to steal it.
The safe game is the expensive game
Most young players figure out early that the safest way to avoid looking bad is to avoid trying anything. Pass it sideways. Give it back to the defender. Use the strong foot every single time. Stay out of the duel you might lose.
That player will have a clean afternoon. They will also stop developing.
I have watched this happen to talented kids for the last twenty years. Somewhere around thirteen or fourteen, a player decides that not losing the ball matters more than learning what they are capable of. They get tidy. They get invisible. And by the time they are seventeen and the game asks them to beat somebody or break a line, the tool is not there, because they spent four years not building it.
The window for taking risks cheaply is now. At ten, a turnover costs nothing. At nine, nobody remembers the result. At twelve, a bad touch is a Tuesday. That luxury does not last. Ask any college coach what they are looking for and it will not be a player who has never made a mistake.
Growth is not a straight line
The other thing I am fighting, in myself as much as anyone, is the urge to believe development moves in a straight line.
It does not. It never has. A player will look sharp for six weeks and then lose their touch for three. They will be brave all spring and timid in September. They will be the best player on the field in one game and anonymous in the next, against the same opponent, with the same teammates. Parents see that dip and assume something is wrong. Usually nothing is wrong at all.
What actually happens in a good environment is that the floor keeps rising. The peaks and valleys do not go away, but the bad day at thirteen is better than the good day at eleven. That is the only measurement that matters, and you cannot see it week to week. You see it over years, which is exactly what the report cards are for.
Here is the connection to everything else in this letter. A player stuck in a valley is the player most tempted to stop taking risks, because risk feels expensive when nothing is going well. That is the moment it matters most. The way out of a dip is not playing safer. It is staying brave while it is uncomfortable.
If your player is in a rough patch right now, the environment they are in is doing the work. Let it.
The five risks we want to see:
These line up almost exactly with what our Game Model asks for, which is why I am putting them in front of you.
- 1.
Take the 1v1 in the final third. Every time it is on. They will lose it plenty. The one or two that come off create a goal.
- 2.
Play it forward. The square pass is always available and it is always safe. The forward pass is where games get decided.
- 3.
Use the weak foot in a match. Not just in training. It is on the report card for a reason. It only gets built under pressure.
- 4.
Go into every duel to win it. Not wild tackles. The genuine intent to win the ball every time there is a chance. They will lose plenty. Go win the next one.
- 5.
Ask for the ball right after a mistake. This is the hardest one and the one I care about most. The confident player wants it back after five errors in a row. The scared player hides. Asking again is uncomfortable, and it is the only thing that moves a player forward.
Read that list again and tell me it is not Relentless Action written out five different ways. Tenacity in possession. Effort out of it. Seizing the opportunity instead of waiting for a safer one. That is the KH Way, and it is exactly what your player’s coach is scoring on their report card.
What this asks of us, not them
Here is the uncomfortable part. Players take risks when the adults around them make it safe to fail.
If a kid gets beaten in a duel and hears a groan from the sideline, they will not go into the next one. If they try the weak foot and it skews out for a throw-in and they get a look from the car ride home, they will use the strong foot for the rest of their career. Our coaches have to protect risk-taking in training and in games. You have to protect it on the drive home.
That drive is where a lot of development gets quietly undone.
What I am asking of you
Next game, do not lead with the score. Ask which risk they took, and what they learned from it. Then listen to the answer without fixing it.
If they say they did not take one, that is not a failure either. That is the conversation starting.
A player who is willing to be wrong in public is a player who will keep getting better. That is the whole thing.
Bring the Relentless Action.
– Bronson Gambale, KH National Technical Director
GK Union Save of the Month
Big-time saves from our September GK Union Save of the Month winners! Liam came up with a full-extension save, and Caroline stopped two PKs in a shootout to help her team win the tournament! Congratulations to Liam from KH Elite Murfreesboro and Caroline from KH Elite Cincinnati on a job well done!
Did you make an incredible save or a game-saving block? We want to see them! Post your best saves in the Kings Hammer GK Union Facebook group. Be sure to share throughout the upcoming season and YOU could be selected for our Kings Hammer Save of the Month! GK Save of the Month winners will be announced the Friday of the first full week of the following month.
Monthly winners will be posted on the Kings Hammer social pages and on the GK Union page.
Referee Training Opportunities
Have you ever considered becoming a soccer referee? Whether you’re a player, parent, coach, or simply looking for a fun way to stay involved in the game while earning extra income, now is the perfect time to get certified.
The Kentucky Soccer Referee Association (KSRA) have two in-person training opportunities left at Mustang Athletic Complex!
Northern Kentucky Field Sessions
Mustang Athletic Complex
844 Gilbert Ridge Road
November 15: 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
November 21: 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Click here for more information and to register!
Stay Connected with Kings Hammer
Don’t miss all the latest updates, news, and fun happening on our Kings Hammer social pages!
FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/khcincynky/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/khcincynky/
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