Sorry for the extended absence. Here I go to get my ‘D’ coaching license and then disappear – makes you wonder what they did to me! It definitely was an intense and exhausting class. Thankfully it wasn’t 95+ degrees every day and we had some great kids volunteer to play during our evals, allowing us to catch our breath. I’ll post more on the class shortly, but suffice to say it was fantastic. I learned a lot and somehow managed to escape with my National D – so I was happy. Fully expected to only get my State.
It’s not uncommon for OTP to go quiet during August as it is crunch time for organizing a soccer league, which I’m a part of here – but I usually manage to squeak in a post or two. This year I’ve been putting together a U9 ‘Rec+’ quasi travel program for kids who think they might want to play travel soccer some day. Add to that a whole new affiliation for our league (US Club), new procedures, political upheaval, and a record number of players = a very busy Soccer Dad. Plus lots of new material for posts!
I’m still tying up a number of loose ends as the season gets underway, but don’t be surprised if posts come in bunches over the next week or two. My draft queue is getting close to 100 – not good.
September 9th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
Mike, Congrats on the national D cert; fine effort. Good to hear that the post queue is loaded with good stuff too. I’m taking a ref clinic this weekend then start my second stint as coach in a U6 league so I need all the help I can get.
Cheers, Tim
September 11th, 2008 at 9:39 am
Congrats Mike on the D. This has nothing to do with the “D” but I never post on the NC Soccer Forum – just read it for my laugh of the day.
On Academy – the PGSA does it – I run it. We are playing about 20 games in the Fall 2008 alone. No problems and I have 50 kids particpating. I can tell you that Challenge soccer is going to die – at least in this part of the state. Been there and done that running the DESC for three years. My youngest will go straight from Acadmy (when he finally starts) – with at least 120 USSF refereed matches – and that’s a conserative guess – by the time he hits U-11 Classic. Will he be ready to play at that level? I’ll go out on a limb and say yes – and very well too.
Challnge is a waste – and I have seen enough 11 to 0 scores to know that it helped no one on either team.
NCYSA Academy Coodinators get the games for their kids – plus – from a small town market – I have a few coaches that are pretty decent. We do not have resources other places do – but for what we have – we are doing well. Maybe some parents will disagree and yank their kid in the Spring – who are now in this program – but feel free to ask any of them on how the PGSA Academy is doing. it’s not perfect – but everyone involved is working hard to make it a solid expereince for the players.
My opinion only – Bill Mallett
September 17th, 2008 at 11:32 am
Bill,
Thanks! Hear you about the forum – but hey, sometimes the debates can be illuminating. Just too much of an upper tier bent in terms of who participates. I really with the OTP forum would take off with parents and coaches from the bigger levels (young select and rec teams)
Anyway – My points weren’t that Academy itself was a bad thing. Handled properly it can be a great thing and we’re actually doing a form of Academy for our U9 teams. Challenge isn’t a waste if it’s handled right, but the problem was there was no easy way to ensure competitive matches. I still believe there will be 10-0 blowouts in Academy – no matter how hard a league tries to balance. I agree – small town markets have a bit of an advantage because they usually have a tighter hold on things.
I’ve got a couple posts coming on our experiences and I hope it’ll spawn some good discussion…
Thanks for the comment!