BU10 Team 12

We had our first practice!
Only four players showed up :(  I ended up sending an email to all the parents chiding them for not keeping me in the loop, if their kids are not going to make practice.

I have two strong players, and two weaker ones (so far).  Trevor was a pretty good keeper last year; we'll have to see what shakes out when the rest of the team shows up for practice.

First game on Saturday!   Let's hope we do well...

Pre-season recap

First games are Friday night!

We had a lot of trouble getting coaches this year.  We had to disband a BU10 team!  Fortunately we were able to absorb the kids into other teams, but it was hard.  I don't know what parents are thinking! 

This is really a failure of our previous coach administration - which was non-existent.  We get a good surge in U6-U8, it really is pretty easy - training is online, no pressure, teams are fun.  What we need to do, is encourage those guys starting in the middle of the season to think about getting the next level of training.

We did this with the referees - seeing who is having fun, supporting them, and encouraging them to go to class.  We can do this with the coaches too!

However, what I hated the most were the teams where the parents didn't even bother to get back to us.  I find this quite rude.  I wanted to disband those teams just because!  In any case, this whole division had better not expect any favors!

Turkey Tournament 2012 - won't happen.

Even though I put in the work, everybody seems to be too busy to pull it off this year.
However, I have assurances that we WILL do this next year!

U10 Team formation success!

We just had a successful team formation.  There was an element of controversy last year; due to the MIA status of our RC.  The division comissioners did a yeoman's job so setting up the teams, but did so without input and there was, at the very least there was an appearance of impropriety (if not actual ethical lapses).

Also, the past RC allowed the comissioners to be in charge of the divisions in which their kids played, again allowing for an appearance of conflict.  It didn't help that the teams did well (it might have been good coaching) -- there was a lot of complaints and accusations flying about.  So much so, that we had arguments from parents at boad meetings and had to hold two meetings of the  'Fair and balanced team fomation committee'.  The bottom line is that we repeatedly had to hold up our Regional Guidelines to show that we have a way of balancing teams - the procedures just weren't followed.

So, we had team formations.  Some coaches showed up, and we even had some player evaluations!
I printed out all the players on 3x5 index cards.

I had the coaches rank all the players, based upon personal knowledge, evaluations, and years in the league.  We then 'snaked' them, starting with the best 9 yr old players down to the weakest players. Then we reversed it for the 8 yr olds.  The coaches all agreed that the teams looked balanced, then we move it so each team had a coach or a potential coach.  We then had a double draw and adjusted the teams.  Had everyone look, and made some adjustments that were approved by everybody to fine tune it.

So now we had full transparency; anyone at the meeting can't complain because they all said it looked good - and anyone who wasn't there doesn't get to complain!  If they cared, they should have attended; it was open to everyone...

Fund raising

We went out and signed up with Community Discount Cards, a fundraising group.  We select 30 local business, and then they go out and try to get them to give some sort of discount (10% discount, free drink, etc).  We get 50% of the selling price, and the company sets up incentives for kids selling the most, and so forth.  I polled the board for suggestions, and only a few came back with anything.(I told the rest they had no right to complain in the future).  The RC signed, and we are ready to go!
Initial order is 1000 cards, which is about how many players we have in,  I suspect each player in the competitive divisions should be able to sell two cards each.  Let's see how it works!

Turkey Tournament 2012 is moving closer!

Jay agreed to be our Referee Administrator for the tournament!  He wondered a bit about what he would have to do, besides looking cool in his shades, master of his domain, kind of like the Road Boss in "Cool Hand Luke."

Essentially, the RA has to round up sufficient 'local' referees to to handle any matches that won't be covered by referee teams provided by the participating teams; verifying the eligibility/appropriateness of the referee teams provided by said teams; making sure all games are covered; and finally verifying that the referees for a particular team fulfilled their obligations thus can get their deposit back.

I have been corresponding with other regions about their tournaments, one RC told me that 70% of the teams forfeit their referee deposit!  (which run about $300 per tournament!).

So far, this is the swag (Stuff We All Get):

Region tournament pins - Everyone
T-shirts - Everyone
Ref Patch - Referee
Ref Flipping Coin - Referee
Ref Food - three games and you get a greasy burger and limp french fries

Ray Bradbury died.

What does this have to do with soccer?  Nothing. However, we need more than soccer in our lives.

I like Ray Bradbury's earlier works.  Farenheit 451 was ground breaking, read that when I was quite young.  I liked the Martian Chronicles; at the time I was a big fan of "hard science fiction" with rocket ships and technology - these stories explored the human side of science.  Then he drifted into fantasy, and I sort of stopped reading his stuff.  There was a huge paradigm shift in science fiction, away from science and predictions of the future; everyone turned to fantasy works. Now, I like swords and magic as well as the next guy, but I missed the future stuff.  Almost nobody was able to predict how computers would change our lives and society; all the SF writers thought we would have atomic powered cars and FTL transport capabilities; little did they realize that we would have computer driven cards and the Internet.

Science is coming back into Science Fiction; and Ray would have been right up there, reminding us that for every alien we crush beneath our treads, the loss dimishes humankind.

Spring League is over!

Had no team to play against for the last game :(

We played 3 on 3; the kids had a good time - however this personified the season for me.
I don't think we will bother with Spring soccer next year.  No focus, no commitment, and we weren't able to wrestle at any tournaments which hurt us at the National wrestling finals.

U19 anyone?

Managed to get out and do the line on a U19 game this weekend. These kids are fast & whine a lot. They want to have you whistle every infraction for their opponents, but want you to 'let them play' when it comes to their actions. There was the usual amount of pushing and pulling, the CR handed out simultaneous red cards,mbut got the restart wrong. Now, it could be logical to want to restart with a dropped ball,but one foul preceded the misconduct (because after the foul play stopped, making the following action misconduct) so the restart shoud be a DFK for the other team. We had a spectacular save on my end, which resulted in a deflection. The defense fouled the kicker which resulted in a PK - but I wonder if we should have cautioned the defender for USB. I am going to rethink this each time a foul occurs in the penalty area...

Practice, anyone?

One kid showed up to practice today... I'm not sure why everyone seems to think Spring soccer doesn't matter. The games are real, butler are lucky to field the minimum numbers of players. We get blown out, but the kids don't show up to practice, so it's a vicious circle.

Our Spring Team has a name!

All the players who attended the game go to vote.

The winner:  The Blue Fire!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Game #2

Played our second game.  Have to say...we were terrible!  Got crushed during the first half; players taking the ball from teammates; keepers forgetting to use their hands, players showing up at the last minute.

However, after a big pep talk at halftime, it was like parting the Red Sea. My forwards started staying forward, my keeper grabbed the ball, and instead of being outscored 6-0 in the 2nd half, we were outscored 2-0!  Even better, we managed to get the ball towards the opposing goal!  Missed the midfield, however.

What I still can't figure out, is why the players will BACK UP when the other team gets the ball. It is quite odd; they will run towards the ball, but when the opposing team get it, instead of aggressively heading for the ball, they will back up.  I guess they think that they are somehow stopping the ball, but all they do is give the other team time to go around them.

That's is what we are going to work on next week!

Claming my blog in technorati!

I need to post this SECRET CODE:  URKC2JU3R5KB

We'll see if this works!

How to create a Region Web site, Part II

Expanding on yesterday's post of page types, this is broken down by the type of information consumer.
(The formatting didn't port very well, so I am going to make it an ordered list...)

 

The breakdown is the information consumer, what type of information they need, then the page(s).

 

 

Parent -> Looking for: Registration

• Announcements
• Calendar
• Registration Information Page
• Registration Checklists

Parent -> Looking for: Team Info

•  Calendar
• Team Listings (Coach info)
• Directory (Commissioner, RCA, ARC, RC)
• Game Schedules
• Statistics
• Regional Guidelines

Parent -> Looking for: Game Info

• Calendar 
• Team Listings
• Game Schedules
• Field Listings
• Field Conditions

Parent -> Wanting to make: Complaint

• Announcements
• Regional Guidelines
• Directory (Registrar, Commissioner, RCA,RRA, ARC, RC, Board)
• Parent Handbook

Parent -> Wanting to: Volunteer

• Announcements
• Calendar
• Volunteer Listing
• Directory (Board)

Coach -> Looking for: Information

• Announcements
• Calendar
• Team Listings
• Game Schedules
• Stats
• Field Listings
• Field Condition
• Directory (Commissioner, RCA, ARC, RC, Board)
• Training
• Regional Guidelines

Coach -> Wanting to make: Complaint

• Announcements
• Regional Guidelines
• Directory ( Commissioner, RCA,RRA, ARC, RC) 

 

Referee -> Looking for: Information

• Announcements
• Calendar
• Game Schedules
• Refschedule.com
• Field Listings
• Field Condition
• Laws of the Game (FIFA, AYSO National Guidelines)
• Regional Guidelines
• Directory (DRI, RRA, Board)

Referee:  Looking to make: Complaint

• Announcements
• Regional Guidelines
• Laws of the Game
• Directory ( DRI, RRA, RC)

Board Member: RC, ARC

• Announcements
• Calendar
• Directory (Board)
• eAYSO

Board Member: RCA (Regional Coach Administrator)

• Announcements
• Calendar
• Team Listings (Coach info)
• eAYSO
• Regional Guidelines
• Parent Handbook
• Directory (Board)

Board Member: RRA (Regional Referee Administrator)

•  Announcements
• Calendar
• Laws of the Game
• Refschedule.com
• Directory (Board)

Board Member: Commissioner

• Announcements
• Calendar
• Parent Handbook
• Commissioner Guidelines
• eAYSO
• Directory (Board)

Volunteer:

•  Announcements
• Calendar
• Volunteer Listing
• Directory (Board)

How to create a Region Website, Part I

Our website sucks.  We are convening a committee to discuss changes.  Here's my contribution as to what we need at a minimum...

Web site design considerations




Main Page

1. Important announcements

2. Calendar

3. Field status

4. Links

a. Info pages

b. Board contact info

c. Area pages



Information Page(s)



1. Team Pages

a. Schedules

b. Standings/Stats

c. Team information

d. Contact information (Coaches)



2. Coaches Pages

a. Information

b. Training

c. Class schedules

d. Rules/guidelines

e. Coach management contact info



3. Referee Pages

a. Information

b. Training

c. Class Schedules

d. Rules/Guidelines

e. Referee management contact info



4. Field information

a. Field locations

b. Field maps

c. Field status

d. Field management contact info





5. Volunteer pages

a. Positions

b. Open positions

c. Board contact list

Tournement Prep docs

Here is our starting, working document:

Divisions: U8, U10 and U12 (consider U14)



Locations

Need to check field availability and then work through number of teams per division based on field set up.

Volunteers needed

• Tournament Director

• Assistant Tournament Director

• Referee Coordinator

• Tournament Treasurer

• Scheduler

• Statistician

• U8 Division Coordinator

• U10 Division Coordinator

• U12 Division Coordinator

• Registration and Check-In Coordinator

• Volunteer Coordinator

o Field Director(s)
o T-shirt Sales Coordinator – one per location

• Sponsorship/Marketing/PR Outreach Coordinator

o Food/Vendor Coordinator



Cost for Tournament

• Develop budget – fields, t-shirts, trophies/medals/pins/patches…..anything else?

• Registration cost per team

• Referee deposit per team



Dates to Consider



• Application submitted to National for approval.

• Deadline for applications being received.



** Sales Tax/Business License/Checking Account **



Budgetary Items

• Rental Items

o Communications Devices (Radios?)

o Canopies – each venue

o Tables – Per Venue

 Registration/Check in

 Referee Check in

 Sales (if needed)

o Chairs – 2 per table

o Wi-fi/Hotspot

o Computer/laptop(s)/printer(s)

o EMS/Security

o Generator(s) – if needed

o Field space



• Purchase items

o Water

o Signage (per venue for professional appearance)

 Referee/Check in/Sales/etc

• May be offset by sponsors

o Printing

 Game cards

 Rosters

 Brochures/Maps/Info

• May be offset by sponsors

o Snack stand (if used)

 What would we sell?

o Corner flags, goals, nets (as needed), chalk, paint

o Team swag

 T-Shirt, pin

o Coach swag

 T-Shirt, pin, hat

o Referee swag

 T-Shirt, pin, patch, coin

o Sale items

 Sweat shirts

 T-shirts

 Hats

 Ball

Turkey Tournament 2012

As I mentioned, we are looking at a 'Turkey Tournament' this year.  This is a continuation of one that was in Redondo Beach for many years.  What I like about this trounament, in particular, is that it is for the kids of the people who make it all work - the volunteers.  While some of the kids are among the better players, many are...not.  This is one way they will get to have that tournament experience that can be a lot of fun.  There is a hierarchy involved:  VIP buddies, Youth Referees, Children of: Board Members, Referees, Coaches.

Registration - its not just for soccer

Bruce cleaned out the storage compartment and found 10 giant tubs of Region clothing, turkey tournament (dated!) sweaters, and hoodies.

We sold $1000 worth of items at the first registration event!

Turkey Tournament, anyone?

Had a long discussion with Van today; we are exploring resurrecting our (1 time) Turkey Tournament, the successor to the (many year) Redondo Beach Turkey tournament.

I enjoyed the tournament, because it was for kids whose parents volunteered.  My kids have never been great at soccer, so having this tournament was pretty fun for them.  There are several tournaments during this time frame, but they really don't address the volunteer aspect.

We've sort of decided that we will try to go with U8-U12; I don't recall any U8 tournaments around here.  However...U8 by definition is non-competetive, how do you change a season of learning into a tournament focusing on victory?

My thought was to make it a 'sportsmanship' event for the U8-ers; but how do you differentiate in a meaningful way?

Our Region's web page sucks!

Our web page sucks.  It is generated via D4 sports, but it never worked very well.  I see other region's sites, and they all seem so much better than ours.

We are about to form a web page commitee to decide what we want on it.

I think the web page should have a calendar of events, a main area with important announcements, info for parents, info for coaches, info for referees, game schedules, standings, and maps to the fields.

Spring League is upon us!

Spring League is upon us!

I have to admit, Shutterfly is a GREAT tool for team management.  They have a deal with AYSO to generate the teams automatically, and it is fantastic!  We got an email stating that several thousand sites need to be setup to keep the deal going, and I really hope that they keep it!

Besides having the roster automatically generated, you can add and change the rosters.  You can add photos.  You can put in the practice schedules and games with the address; parents can get a map autogenerated.  And the system will automatically email reminders for each event.  You can assign things like the snack schedule, or let parents sign up themselves.  You can send mass emails to the whole team, and parents can up load photos and videos to share.

All in all, it makes managing the team a piece of cake!

I spent a little time tidying up the roster with new players, then entered the games and 1st meeting, then sent out a mass email to everyone so they can view it and sign up for snacks and refereeing.

Shutterfly - not just for photo albums anymore!

12 years and counting...

Wow.  We started playing soccer 12 years ago; since that time I've been a coach, a referee, a referee instructor, referee instructor evaluator, statistician, an Assistant Regional Comissioner, and Director or Referee Instruction.  My blogging here has been sporadic; I doubt that anyone has ever read these pages (except me).  But I press on...

Our region's leadership has been a problem for the past 5 years.  The RC was checking out his 2nd year - to be fair, his predecessor had done some serious damage to the volunteer infrastructure and the new guy was done.  The next RC finished the job, driving away most of the serious volunteers, and keeping sycophants and cronies around, ignoring the regional guidelines for her self serving purposes, and generally screwing up the region and driving away whole families.

We have a new RC now; we have a board that seems willing to work hard together - but we still are having trouble with lone wolfs making unilateral decisions affecting other people and their jobs.  This has already lead to the registrar resigning in disgust. 

Hopefully, all will get better; it can hardly get any worse!