History of The Slashers

The Slashers came into existence in the fall of 2002. That season, The Slashers were the only U-12 team in the Madison in-town rec. youth soccer programme. We ended up playing games against teams in Guilford's in-town rec. youth soccer programme. They had six teams.

At the Madison Youth Soccer Club coaches meeting in August 2000 Coach Archer received his roster and the cotton t-shirts to hand out to his team for the fall season.

In Madison, the traditional colour of the travel rec. t-shirts is a mustard colour, like this. Instead, we received this colour, sort of a primrose yellow.

At first Coach Archer didn't like the colour, it wasn't a very "strong" colour for a boys team! He felt it may have a negative effect on how his players played. So, he tried to turn a negative thing into a positive thing...

When Coach Archer first gave out the shirts to his team, the boys were not happy with the colour either. So Coach Archer told them what he thought the name of the team should be, and why. Traditionally the boys give suggestions first.

Coach Archer is from England where people give nicknames to almost everything. The colour of the shirts reminded him of the term "Lemon Dash." In England, this term is used for the act of urinating where it refers to the colour of the urine. One is said to be having a "Lemon Dash" when urinating. ("Lemon Dash" is also the nickname for a pint of ale with a very small amount of lemon soda pop (like "7Up") added, i.e., a dash of lemon.) The British also use rhyming slang to nickname somethings too, so the act of urinating became known as "Slashing." "Slash" rhymes with "Lemon Dash." So, when a Brit says he is "going for a slash" you will now know he really means he's going for a pee!

So, Coach Archer told his team that he thought they should be called The Slashers. At first they laughed until he told them why. After that, they loved it!

We had such a terrific season in fall of 2002 that those players who returned for subsequent seasons wanted to be The Slashers again.

We have used the name as we have grown from U-12 to U-14 and each Slashers team has continued the tradition of a successful season.

The Slashers has a very proud heritage!