Moving to typepad

update your links to

http://becky.typepad.com

The one where I write the letter to the parents…(with what I really thought in red)

To Parents of the U7 Sparrow Players:

Thank you for allowing your child to play youth soccer this year (why the crap did so many of you sign up?). I look forward to meeting all of the parents. I am extremely excited about helping your child expand their understanding of the great game of soccer! As their coach, my first emphasis will be on what I call FUNdamentals. I will work with your child to further develop their fundamental skills and hopefully we will have a lot of FUN learning together( I have no idea what I am doing, please don’t expect me to train your kid to be the next Reynaldo)

I require that each child be respectful. Respectful to me, fellow players, opponents, officials and those they come in contact with throughout the season.(Please don’t let your kids be brats, mmmkay?) I believe it is important to develop an early understanding of sportsmanship and teamwork. (this also means you can’t be a total dumb ass on the sidelines, either) My focus is to teach and grow as players, not win. We will win as a team and lose as a team. I hope that you also share this philosophy and will discuss and emphasize these concepts with your children throughout the season.(See above statement about not know what the crap I am doing)

This is my first year coaching and my second year in the club. This is a very supportive and fun-loving club and I’m extremely excited to be learning with your children. (Again..I have no freaking clue how to coach)

Enclosed/attached are some materials that I hope you find helpful: (READ THIS)

Team Roster
We are the Sparrows and will be playing in the U7 Girls divison of the Belleuve Soccer Club. Attached is the team roster, we currently have 8 players on our team.  (please don’t ask me halfway into the season what our team name is..or who the other kids are)

Practice and Game Schedule
Attached is the practice schedule. Games have already been scheduled. Please note our first practice on Wednesday August 27th at 6:30pm at Anderson Grove Elementary North Field (see address below). All practices after that will be on Mondays. At least one parent per child should plan to attend the first practice as there will be a brief orientation and I would like to be able to meet you all to learn about your children and how I can best help them grow as soccer players. (Please don’t lose this schedule, Don’t call me about when the practices are scheduled as I am going to promptly forget myself.)

Snack Schedule:

Attached is the snack schedule. We will be rotating the snack duties throughout the players each week so that no one person is responsible for every game. In the past, we generally have had one family bring orange slices at half time and another family bring the snacks/drinks for after the game. Ideas for good snacks are granola bars or a cold/frozen snack (popsicle/ice cream bars) to help them cool down and some sort of juice box type drink. (This you will have a turn to provide snacks, don’t be a douche and stay home that game either)

Also enclosed are some ideas for our team parent(s) to look at in order to order our team trophies and team pictures. There is also a flyer about team parties for you to look at. Volunteers to help with this are greatly appreciated. Please let me know if you can take over one of these projects. (FYI, if you don’t volunteer, kids won’t get tropies or pictures. Don’t be a douche)

Please don’t forget to bring your cleats, shin guards and a full water bottle to all the practices and games. I will be handing out team shirts and socks at the first practice and will be collecting the shirts at the last game of the season. (I know about 50% of you will forget..so I am going to bring extra bottles of water and shin guards..)

See you all at practice and the games!

Thanks Again-

Becky

Starting a new 8 week series of posts–

The Adventures of a Baffled Parent (coaching soccer) or alternately titled : What did I get myself into?

This series will focus on my lack of knowledge about the game of soccer and how I manage to deal with 8 little girls (7 and under) and 8 sets of parents who think they know best. Watch as I dodge the angry parents and be amazed at my ability to come up with random soccer drills on the spur of the moment.

Stay tuned!