Here is the email that I sent to our 2021/2022 group.
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Morning all,
This email would typically have come immediately after tryouts were completed and next year's roster was solidified, but last year's team still had a game to play yesterday and I wanted to finish out the season before jumping into the new one.
Tryouts are always a very tough time for me as a coach. There were hard decisions made, and it was a very difficult week having to say goodbye to players and families who won't be with us next year. With that said, today, for the first time in a few weeks, I woke up (at 3:30AM) excited for soccer, excited to dive into writing this email, and to begin another season.
So here we go...
New Players
First off, a big welcome to the 6 new players/families joining our group! We will be holding a kickoff get-together (more details below) soon for everyone to meet face to face, but here are the names and past club info for now:
Antonia Pflaum (09 Tonka United Academy 1)
Emma Steier (09 Boreal FC - team played up to U13 last year)
Melia Mackey (08 MN Eclipse)
Jamie Beardsley (09 Salvo South Steel)
Valerie Carrillo (09 Salvo South Steel)
Audrey Clark (09 Lakeville SC Academy)
Uniforms
Since we're on the 2nd year of a 2-year cycle, only those players new to the club will need to order uniforms/warm-ups. To these families, I would do this as soon as you can, as sometimes there is a delay due to backlog and volume at soccer.com.
I'm not sure if they had sample uniforms at tryouts for sizing, or if you've been given a deadline to get your order in by, but we can have some of last year's players bring their uniforms next weekend to the kickoff get-together (more details below).
If any player from last year needs something new (jersey too worn, small, etc) you should contact Tara asap.
Training Start, Online Sessions, and Kickoff Get-Together(s)
As you'll see below, we open up our season in mid-Sept, and face likely our 3 toughest challenges right off the bat with SLSG (MO), Eclipse (IL), and Hawks (MI).
Much as I would like to jump in and start training this week to prepare, I can't train the girls in person on the field until Aug 16 due to liability issues and club insurance coverage. And moreover, the girls (and probably you all) need a soccer break.
With that said, I am going to host some online sessions starting this week. These will be 30-45 min sessions just getting the girls together via Zoom and running through some video analysis of pro/nat team games. More details coming up, but tentatively planning on starting after we all meet face to face.
I'm a firm believer that the closer the girls are with each other off the field directly impacts their performance on the field, so I'm trying to find ways to integrate the team as early as I can.
We are tentatively looking at hosting get-togethers on Sat July 31 (@ the Ishaug's home in Eden Prairie) and Sat Aug 7 (@ Triplett's the home in Eagan). The idea here is that I'll run a video analysis or chalk talk session with the girls for 30-45 min, then they'll be cut loose to play and swim. Parents are encourage to stay and hang out, and I'll plan on meeting with the parent group after I'm done with the girls. It will be BYOE (bring your own everything) as to not impose on the host families any more that I am already. More details about next weekend will be coming early this week from Allanna (team manager).
Sat (Aug 14) we'll look to get together for a hike, and then have a friend of mine (Rick Rassier) come in on Sunday to work with the team for 2-2.5 hours running them through a teamwork/motivation session (https://rickrassier.weebly.com). This might be done at AHA, or at another team family's home.
Note that I know this is a downtime on the calendar and that families may be planning travel over the next 3 weeks. If you have to miss anything, don't sweat it.
Fall Training and Game Schedule
I'm awaiting our final training schedule, but have been told we'll be going Tues, Wed, and Thur evenings.
Sat, Aug 28, I'm looking to bring in 3 teams for some 11v11 friendlies.
Games start mid-Sept. We have 7 competitive weekends from mid-Sept through the first weekend in Nov, and travel for 5 of them. This is a lot for the fall. We won't be on the road a ton in the spring.
Here's the game schedule. It's subject to change still, but I want to get this to people who might need to plan out work schedules way in advance.
Sat, Sept 11 @ SLSG Navy (MO)
Sun, Sept 12 @ SLSG Green (MO)
Sat, Sept 25 Eclipse Select (IL)
Sat, Oct 2 @ Hawks (MI)
Sun, Oct 3 @ Hawks Magic (MI)
Sat Oct 9 Eclipse North (IL)
Sat Oct 16 @ FC Wisconsin (WI)
Sat Oct 23 @ Sporting BV (KS)
Sun Oct 24 @ KC Athletics (KS)
Sat Nov 6 @ Sporting Iowa (in Omaha)
Sun Nov 7 @ Gretna Elite Academy (NE)
Good news is that we should have game times well in advance, and families planing air travel will have definitive times to plan around (as opposed to "a possible final game on Sunday at 3PM" like we saw in most normal tournaments).
Communication
I'll use BYGA for email communication. I think the club provided info on how to download this app and log on. If not, we can address this in person next weekend. All I ask is that you take the time to mark availability in the app so I know how many kids will be at training. This will allow me to design efficient training sessions based on numbers.
We'll also all use GroupMe. New families should download the GroupMe app then get Mickey's dad (Rob Caverly) your cell numbers so he can add you to the group chat. You can email these to him at rcaverly2@yahoo.com.
The girls also have a chat group, and I'm sure your daughters will be added to that once we get together face to face.
Vlog/Blog and GoPros
I started a YouTube channel for this team a few years back, and had hoped to use all the editing/uploading experience gained over that time to document our first year in the ECNL.
If you see me looking like RoboCop with GoPro harness strapped to my chest, you'll know why. Don't be scared.
If you have any issue with your daughter's inclusion in these YouTube videos, please don't hesitate to let me know.
I may end up doing this documentation via a blog vs a vlog because, in case you couldn't tell, I like to write. And it's much easier for me to write than it is for me to record and edit video.
VEO and Streaming Away Games
The club purchased a VEO camera last year for all the teams to use. I could rarely get it when I wanted it, so I ended up purchasing my own. The issue is that I purchased a family plan which was far cheaper than a team plan like the club is on. Through the team plan, players would be able to access all their team videos and create/download their own highlight clips. They cannot do this on my family plan. I may look to convert this to a team plan, but if not, I'll still be able to share the links to all our games. This will allow you to watch the games that you can't make.
Unfortunately, I can't live stream the games using VEO. We had a parent live stream some away games last year, and this may be an options for this fall as well.
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That's about it for now. If there are any questions that I can answer in advance of our field parent meeting next weekend, feel free to reach out.
Looking forward to meeting everyone next weekend.
I'm going back to bed...
