November 2, 2011
Dear Soccer Parents,
We are almost through the fall season and now wake up to a carpet of snow in October! Hopefully, it melts away so we can finish out the last few weeks of the season. Overall, I feel the fall season has been a resounding success, but look for your feedback on the programs you like and for ways we can further improve.
I wanted to take a moment to draw your attention to a few things going on in the club as we enter into the winter season, especially with so many changes this Fall. The biggest difference is the emphasis on player and coach development with the addition of our new Director of Coaching. We hope that you have noticed the difference!
Training Update
As mentioned, Wel lesley United Soccer took a big step with the decision to hire a full-time Director of Coaching, Tom Goodman. Tom's emphasis has been on coach development to improve the level of coaching and provide opportunities to all players (stratified and balanced travel teams, K-3rd Grade in-town players). With a program as large as Wellesley United Soccer (over 3500 registrations fall and spring, approaching 2,000 kids overall), it is very important that the club adopt a unified training and development philosophy. To that end, Tom has come up with training curricula for our coaches in the form of full practice plans posted on-line. He gave coaching clinics and courses this fall and for 4 days a week held age group team training (3rd-8th Grade) with all coaches and their teams at Sprague. Tom reviewed the practice plans and walked the fields to assist coaches in implementation. For the final 4 weeks of the fall season, Tom visited fields, other than Sprague, and worked with ind ividual teams and their coaches.
In the area of player development, we have held new Academy programs for 1st-6th Grade on Wednesdays that provide additional training beyond the team training for our players. In addition, we started a new Kindergarten program run by Tom on Saturday mornings which sold out quickly, but provided a great new opportunity for our youngest players to benefit from a fun soccer environment. I do want to stress that the training in all cases is meant for ALL players interested in more training and is not focused only on Division 1 and 2 players.
For future player training, please make sure to sign up early as they do fill up.
New Winter Training
As we move indoors for the winter, many of our players play other sports (basketball, hockey, gymnastics) which is very healthy even for their soccer development. Other sports can h elp build coordination, flexibility and athleticism, not to mention a mental break as opposed to doing one sport all year. For players who want to get some soccer in over the winter, there are several new options. Tom will be running winter training on weeknights (for which registration has just opened) and will be looking to open other training opportunities in the coming months. In addition, there are several indoor opportunities for teams such as indoor soccer (Newton Indoor) and futsal (Brookline Futsal). Teams must contact those organizations directly to register.
Spring Season Registration and Feedback Forms
Registration deadlines are:
Grades 4-8: November 30
Grades 1-3: January 17
Grades 9-12: March 1
Grade K will be announced soon
Parents - please complete the fall season feedback survey when it comes via email (shortly)
Revs Night
Wellesley United Soccer had a Revs Night on October 1 with 165 people coming out for the event, which included a tailgate with an additional 75 Wellesley fans from the WHS boys and girls soccer teams. Special thanks to John Sivolella for putting the entire event together.
Welllesley High School Soccer
Both the boys and girls teams have had fantastic seasons and are in the MIAA playoffs. The boys team under first year coach Tim Mason went 12-5-1 while the girls under Kristen Walsh finished at 14-4. The playoff schedules will be out on Thursday and we will post a link to the high school playoff schedule on our website.
Cheers,
Steve Kogon
President
Wellesley United Soccer
August 3, 2011 Dear Soccer Families, I hope that everyone is in the midst of a great summer and spending time relaxing with summer activities and vacations. In the midst of that, I hope you had the chance to catch the Women's World Cup with some fantastic games and an exciting run by the U.S.A. to make it to the finals against Japan, unfortunately losing on penalty kicks. Some absolutely fantastic games were played on that run, especially against Brazil and France. On the U.S. Men’s side, just this past week, Jurgen Klinsmann was announced as the new U.S. National Team coach, replacing Bob Bradley. In terms of our own Wellesley United Soccer Club (WUSC) program, we enjoyed a great spring season, with many of our teams having strong seasons in the Boston Area Youth Soccer (BAYS) league and 3 teams actually moving on to the Massachusetts Tournament of Champions. During the spring season we were also able to bring on-board our new Director of Coaching, Tom Goodman who we have been working hard with over the summer to revamp the WUSC training program. For the upcoming fall season, we would like to unveil a series of new programs geared at both player and coach development. We hope these additional programs will help give everyone in WUSC more opportunities for training and improve the overall soccer experience for our players. Details on the new programs are: Academy Programs (1st to 5th Grade) The Academy program is intended for kids seeking additional training to develop their soccer skills. It will be offered to 1st-5th Graders in grade specific sessions and will be taught by Tom Goodman. The Academy program will be held once a week for one-hour training sessions on Wednesday afternoons at Elm Bank. It will start on August 31st and run for 8 weeks and the cost is $120. The Academy training times are: grade 1 (1-2pm), grade 2 (2-3pm), grade 3 (3-4pm), grade 4 (4-5pm), grade 5 (5-6pm). The Academy program is a great way for kids interested in developing their soccer ball handling, dribbling, passing, control and shooting. Registration will be through WUSC website. Coaching Clinics For the fall, Tom Goodman will hold a series of coaching seminars for our WUSC coaches. The sessions will focus on topics of interest and will be age group specific. The clinics will give coaches necessary tools and knowledge to craft their own practice sessions and better make use of practice plans that will be posted on our website shortly. The clinics will be held on weeknights with dates and topics to be announced shortly. Age group training days/sites To better assist our coaches, we would like to have age group specific practice dates and sites for the fall. Coaches will still pick their practice dates based on optimizing schedule for their players and their own schedules but, if it is possible to hold their training on these dates, the age groups will have all teams practice at a common time and location. At this location, we will have Tom Goodman arrive early to help coaches run through the practice plan for that week and then remain on site, rotating among the different team practices to assist with the implementation of the practice plan. We hope that this approach will give our coaches a great resource with the practice plans and longer-term educational value with the presence of Tom at the sessions. Kindergarten Program Saturday mornings For our Kindergartners, we will have a new Saturday morning soccer program from 8:30 to 9:30 am. The session will be run by Tom Goodman and staff and will consist of 30 minutes of fun, focused, age-appropriate technical skills work fun, focused, age-appropriate skill work followed by 30 minutes of small-sided games. They will play for 7 weeks starting Sat. Sept. 10 and cost is $95. Please sign up via WUSC Registration site. That's all for now. I am looking forward to seeing everyone back on the fields in a few weeks but in the mean time, enjoy the rest of your summer and keep those kids playing with their favorite soccer ball. It’s all about the touches with the ball! Cheers, Steve Kogon President Wellesley United Soccer
Wellesley Soccer Community,
Wellesley United Soccer Club (WUSC) is thrilled to announce the hiring of Tom Goodman as our full-time Director of Coaching (DOC). Tom comes to WUSC from Mass Youth Soccer where he served as Technical Director for Massachusetts. With Wellesley being the 2nd largest soccer program in Massachusetts (behind Newton), the DOC will be essential to provide the necessary training resources to our coaches and players to make the best possible experience for all of our Wellesley soccer players.
The DOC will help to improve the overall quality of programs and training within Wellesley Soccer. The initial focus will be on getting resources to our coaches. As part of this, Tom will develop training curricula for all ages (K-8) and skill levels. You will soon see several new initiatives rolled out as next fall season begins.
The hiring of a DOC is a major step for Wellesley Soccer but Tom is uniquely qualified with a full career of soccer coaching experience:
• US Youth Soccer National Director of Coaching Education
• US Soccer Federation Region I National Coach
• Director or Coaching and Player Development, Pennsylvania West Soccer Association
• Author of Soccer Training Books and DVD's
• President/Director of World Class Soccer
• US Soccer Federation "A" Coaching License
• US Soccer Federation National Youth License
• Master's Degree in Administration of Education
In addition, Tom also has over 20 years of teaching experience at the elementary, middle and high school levels. As the ideal coach is both a soccer expert and has a strong education background, we feel Tom is the perfect person for the job.
Regards,
Steve Kogon
President
Wellesley United Soccer Club
May 2011
Wellesley Soccer Community,
Our spring season is off and running! I have seen many of you already out on the fields of Wellesley both for practices and games. Since many of us are getting back from April school vacations, I thought it would be an opportune time to pass along some gentle reminders about our conduct as parents and coaches as well as share some thoughts on the upcoming process for selecting teams for next fall.
Parent Conduct
As parents of children, we only want the best for our kids, so please take the following comments with that thought in mind. Our goal with Wellesley Soccer is to give kids the opportunity to play soccer at an appropriate level of competitiveness that makes it fun for them and that furthers their development as soccer players. Coaches are encouraged to develop age and skill appropriate practices that emphasize the various aspects of soccer. Hopefully, everyone is approaching the season with a goal in mind and has a "curriculum" built around that goal. Again, when we add a Director of Coaching in the near future, we plan to formalize that process and provide greater resources to our coaches and players.
When it comes to games, while the majority of the cheering from the sidelines is positive, I have noticed some things that are not always conducive to our young soccer players’ development, both in terms of skills and in terms of their enjoyment of the game. As you approach games as engaged spectators and enthusiastic fans, please keep a few things in mind.
One, this is not a Red Sox, Patriots or Manchester United game. The kids do react and internalize comments from the sidelines. We want to make this a positive environment for trying out their new soccer skills, so please refrain from negative or critical commentary.
Two, during the week, their coaches have tried to teach certain principles and skills and the games are where they put them to use and work on decision making. Too many times, I hear parents/coaches yelling out play-by-play instructions for players to follow some of which are contradictory or sometimes wrong. For example, when we try to teach kids to control the ball and "pass with a purpose," instructions from the sideline such as "boot the ball" or "kick it" are really not what we want them to do. Just imagine yourself driving your car and having someone from the backseat yelling at you, "hit the gas!" or "turn!"
Game situations are opportunities for our players to build their own decision making skills and do that under the pressure and time limits that a game setting provides. Please keep that in mind. I am not advocating a silent sideline, but instead encourage you to make positive comments phrased in the past tense rather than instructing what to do. Clapping, cheering, “way to go,” “nice play,” are all great motivators.
Fall Season Tryouts
As many of you have seen, tryout dates have been set and are available via a link from the home page. The tryouts are used to select the Division 1 and 2 teams (A and B) for Grades 4-8 for the upcoming fall season (current 3rd through 7th Graders try out). For these grades, we typically have two selected or “stratified” teams (Division 1 and 2 or A/B). The remaining teams are Balanced teams, selected in a coach draft to “balance” the talent level across the teams.
The data collected at the tryouts is used along with coach’s evaluations to select teams at the team pick meetings in June. Team announcements typically come out via email in late June (after school is out).
For those new to tryouts, the tryouts are done in two stages -- an initial tryout of current “Balanced” team players from which players are invited back for two remaining sessions with all current Division 1 and 2 players. Since the team selection process begins with the 4th Grade age group (current 3rd Graders), the process is somewhat different in that initial year. Please refer to website for details.
A few notes on the tryouts:
- Players are not required to attend tryouts to be placed on a Balanced team (please only attend if you would like to play on a more competitive D1/D2 team) .
- Players must be registered in order to tryout. Please make sure to do so prior to tryouts.
- Please make every attempt to attend both D1/D2 tryouts and communicate any absence to age group coordinator (listed on website).
- Please make sure to arrive 5-10 minutes early to check-in with coordinator.
- In case of inclement weather, please refer to website for cancellations.
- Do not have players wear any club team apparel (MPS, Bolts, Valeo, etc)
Your current coach and age group coordinator should be communicating with you about the process. I know the process raises anxiety with many of our kids (and parents), so please try to minimize this and not inquire about how your child did at the tryouts. Please keep in mind these are only young kids and being placed on the D1/D2 team does not necessarily correlate with their future soccer prospects. As many kids mature and develop soccer skills as they grow older, teams will change over time and even into high school.
Finally, please try to take a moment to fill out the feedback forms when registering. Feedback is crucial to us, especially in selecting coaches and if we do not hear from you, we are unaware and cannot act on any issues that may exist. Note that all feedback is held confidential and is not shared with the coach or other parents.
I wish you all a fun and successful spring season! See you on the soccer fields of Wellesley.
Cheers,
Steve Kogon, President, Wellesley United Soccer Club
March 2011
Wellesley Soccer Community,
- Age specific curriculum for each season (practice plans for coaches to follow that will cover fundamental skills development and provide a more uniform approach across the program)
- Coach training sessions
- Player training sessions
- Coach evaluation/assessment and feedback
- Player evaluation (including tryouts)
- Off-season (winter/summer) training programs
- Liaison to Wellesley High School program
At this point, I would also like to stress our need for more volunteers for WUSC. The program could directly benefit from:
- Website developers (web-savvy person(s) needed)
- Improve the entire webpage and the interface
- Add content so that the website becomes the central location for Wellesley players/parents for all things soccer
- Fundraising
- For several of our undertakings (DOC, training) as well as the large payments that WUSC must make for Sprague fields, we will need to raise more money
- People with creative ideas (and fun events) would be welcome here for ideas/planning/running events
That does it for now but look forward to a great spring season. Hoping for warm weather to melt the rest of the snow and to get out there soon!
Cheers,
Steve Kogon, President, Wellesley United Soccer Club
As we have completed another successful fall season and are fully into our winter off-season, it is a great opportunity to fill you in on what Wellesley Soccer is up to and gives me an opportunity to get out some information and thoughts on the Program. For starters, I would like to thank all of the outgoing Board Members (Kim Benzan, Charmaine Hartnett, Tom
The fall season saw many of Wellesley Soccer teams enjoy success both in the Boston Area Youth Soccer (BAYS) league as well as in the Natick Columbus Day tournament. Please see the team highlights as part of this newsletter. Of course, ending seasons atop your division or winning tournaments is one measure of success but the ultimate metric should be how much the kids enjoyed the experience and, hopefully as coaches, have begun to instill a love of soccer. The number of kids in the program that return every season is tribute to the great job our coaches do to provide a fun experience. As we move forward as a Club, there are a few items that I would like to focus on, specifically on improving our player and coach development as well our communication to you as parents of
We are in the process of getting spring teams selected for 4th-8th Grade for which team announcements will be out shortly. Many of you ask why registration for spring season is due so soon and that requirement comes from the BAYS deadline to submit teams in January at which point they begin the process of assembling BAYS Divisions for the spring season. For the spring season teams, we do our best to keep teams in tact as it provides a nice experience to the kids involved to have a full year together as a team. Exceptions will be age groups that have a big change in registration numbers for the spring season. Historically, boys age groups can suffer a drop-off in the spring due to other sports but this can also happen for the girls. In the case of changes in numbers, new players may be added to the “A” and “B” teams and our “Balanced” teams may be re-drafted, especially if we can only field a reduced number of teams in the age group. We strive to make the process as fair as possible but please realize that everyone has their own perspective and the age group coordinators and coaches are doing their best in light of sometimes challenging circumstances. Also, in situations where players sign up after the teams are selected we will do our best to place them but cannot guarantee a spot since there are limits on team size both for BAYS and what is practical for a given age group.
I have kept this letter brief in light of the busy time of year we are in but would like to use this forum as a means of pushing more information to you. Look for discussions on improved player development, coach and parent behavior, as well as on town/club programs. I will leave you with a plea for help for our soccer program. We have done a great job recruiting new Board members and volunteers for various projects but we need more help. Areas we are specifically targeting that I am sure there is talent in
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Website Development (we want this to be a focal point to all things soccer for Wellesley)
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Fundraising (looking for creative new ways to raise much needed money to finance new initiatives)
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Player/coach training
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Grades 1-3 organizers/coordinators
I wish everyone a great holiday season with family and friends and look forward to seeing many of you in the New Year, hopefully on a soccer field!
Cheers,
Steve Kogon
President, Wellesley United Soccer Club
