Coaches, most of you should be on the field now with your players. Hopefully it has been fun and will continue to be fun for you and the kids. A few items.
1. PLAYER FORMS: Remember kids being added to your team are to bring the signed player form with him/her. Also, I have heard stories of kids playing as their registration form gets processed. Remember – No form, no play. Don’t jeopardize the league’s insurance with that type of situation.
2. SO & SO CAN’T MAKE MY PRACTICES: We can’t move a player because he/she cannot make practice times. Why? We balance teams. Why? Uniform swaps are complicated. Why? If we honored all of those requests (trust me, there are plenty and would be more if we opened the door), we would have board members for 1 season and then they would quit (i.e., way too much work). Kids get to play Saturday, regardless of how many practices s/he attends. Control over practice times means you decided to coach. That is the only way.
3. INCREDIBLY SHRINKING ROSTER: Tell your Division Director if kids are not showing up. We need to prioritize where kids get placed. Remember, if you are short for a game, then both teams can play down 1 or 2 player OR you can borrow players from the other team. Less players means more touches and more conditioning for those kids. That is not so bad.
4. KEEP AN EYE OUT: You should have heard by now that one of the neighbors near the U8 field closest to McDonalds came onto our fields intoxicated this week. Quick thinking by our parents and our great coach Mike Gore made sure everyone was safe. Police were called in and the man was ticketed for public intoxication. We ask the kids to play “with their heads up” and so should we. On the other end of the spectrum, a coach noticed kids removing flowers from the nearby cemetary. Please empower yourselves and your parents to handle that situation. We should not be in the cemetery.
5. POTOMAC CUP: At the coaches meeting, you heard about a potential one-day (November 3rd) “7 vs 7″ tournament for U12, U14, U16 and U19. What a great way to develop our players by entering into a tournament! If you are SERIOUSLY considering taking a team, then we also need you to talk to your parents about enlisting their help. We need the following jobs fulfilled before we can move forward:
a) Gifts Coordinator (orders trophies, string bags and t-shirts); b) Safety Director (assess fields, goals, handles incident reports – this position requires free training); and c) Volunteer Coordinator
Have interested parties contact Steve Kubik (smkubik@me.com) as soon as possible.
6. WHAT TO DO AT PRACTICE: Show a new move (e.g., fake left, take ball to right w/outside of right foot and explode past the defender). Let them practice. Then reward the move in games or other drills. 1 pt for trying (encourage trying), 2 pts for successfully completing the move (you’re the judge). Kids are afraid of failure when it comes to footwork, so any way you can encourage it is good.
Schedules are close to coming out. I suspect by the weekend we will see them. Keep checking the website.
David P. Simmons
Harpers Ferry, WV
