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Squad Shortage August 26, 2008

Posted by footiecoach in football, juvenile football, soccer.
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What is it with parents ?

You spend the whole season making sure that their kid is ok at training sessions and is getting their fair share of “pitch time” during games. You raise sponsorship monies to ensure that they have training tops, rain jackets, and strips. You chip in your own money to ensure that the players all get a medal to commemorate their efforts over the season.

And what do you get in return ?

Training restarts this week and we eventually had to contact one boy’s mother to get confirmation of the feeling we have had since the previous season ended i.e. the boy isn’t coming back this year.

I don’t want to go into the reasons for this, what annoys me is that the lady in question did not have the common decency to let us know. We have boys on a waiting list to join our team and finding a replacement should not be a problem, however it would have been nice to have had a bit more notice on this front.

There have been plenty of email communications issued to advise people of training sessions, upcoming friendlies etc, so there have been several opportunities to drop a note back or call to say what was happening – or not. It did not happen.

Sometimes this coaching lark feels a little bit like a cheap baby sitting service, and if it wasn’t for the talent and enthusiasm of most of the boys it would be easy to get a bit down about it.

So, we get a few new boys down for trails and see how they get on.

All being well we go into the new season with a full complement of players and a positive attitude restored.

Back On The Pitch August 22, 2008

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Took the boys to a gala tournament on Sunday. This was the first time they had played together for a couple of months having had a well deserved break over the summer holidays.

I was impressed at how well they played, some of the passing movements were a joy to watch.

The team did really well having won all but one of their games in the league section going into the final game. Sadly, the number of games and the length of the day seemed to catch up with them and they looked very tired as they lost the final match 2-0. This defeat meant they missed out in a place in the semi final by one point.

The boys were understandably a bit down at not progressing further but there were a lot of positives to be taken from the day.

Football’s Coming Home August 4, 2008

Posted by footiecoach in football, juvenile football, soccer.
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Nearly there now.  After a few weeks without footie things are almost back to normal.

The SFL kicked off on Saturday with new kids on the block Annan Athletic catching Cowdenbeath cold and inflicting an embarrassing defeat on them.  The SPL kicks off this weekend, by which time Rangers’ European campaign may already be history…

It is still a few weeks before the juvenile football gets underway for the new season but things are definitely starting to ratchet up a gear.  Here are just some of the things on the current ToDo list :

  • Complete kit audit and order up new shorts/socks etc as required
  • Check on players’ availability for upcoming gala tournament (rearranged from earlier this year when a monsoon struck on the original date).  Tournament is only 2 weeks away now.  Might be worth trying to get the boys together beforehand for a quick training session to knock the cobwebs off.
  • Arrange some pre-season friendly games.  One set up at the moment, could do with a couple more.
  • Sort out squads for coming season.  Any players moving on ? Room to take on new players from waiting list?
  • Training nights.  Agree format.  Agree themes and devise drills accordingly.
  • Personal training kit.  Order up new training tops etc.
  • Coaching resources.  Transcribe scribbled notes from coaching conference into proper session plans (should have done this ages ago…), read new coaching books that have just ordered.
  • Forward planning.  The season after the impending one sees us move to the 11-a-side game, need to agree how we are going to transition from two 7-a-side teams to (presumably) one 11-a-side squad.
  • Prepare the paperwork for the new season: membership forms, consent forms, etc.

I still have a feeling that I am going to be a couple of players down when we resume training, we shall have to see…