Pretty scary how fast the summer can fly by! The fall season is already underway for our Rec teams and most of our travel teams have been in pre-season tournaments before the start of their season after Labor Day. I’ve missed writing, but certainly haven’t been sitting idly by in Margaritaville. Besides opening a new business here in town (that finally is close to being ‘ready’ – took much longer than I expected), I’m president of our local league again and am coaching a number of Rec teams in addition to my 96 Girls travel team, the Lunachicks.
I’m hoping to get back in the swing of writing – certainly have a ton of stuff to write about. But it may be a while before I’m posting multiple times a week.
In addition to coaching the 96 girls, who moved to 11v11 this season, I’m coaching my youngest son’s U5 team (aptly named the Lil’ Sheetz. What? It’s their sponsor! 🙂 ) I’m also coaching two U12 Rec teams, which is fun. I really enjoy coaching 8v8. Big enough to give players some concept of tactics and field positioning, yet small enough to keep most players very active. Needless to say, my weeks are very busy (but it’s great exercise!)
I also got my National Youth License this summer after getting my National ‘D’ License last summer. The NYL course was fantastic – kind of like four mini ‘D’ courses packed into one course, one for each youth age level (U6, U8, U10, U12). Each day dealt with a different age and there was a lot more taught about WHY certain ages should be coached a certain way. Highly recommend it for any experienced coach who still coaches small sided teams. Our league tries to send one coach a year to this.
I hope everyone has a good Labor Day weekend! What are you all up to this season? New teams? New clubs? New Rules?
September 9th, 2009 at 1:52 pm
Glad to see you’re back to blogging again.
By the way, thank you for the post you had back in 2006 trying to break down offsides to players. My team is U9 this year (6v6) and will be introduced to offsides. The post broke it down in such usable, simple terms. I just went with the basic concept without all of the other special “rules” that went along with it.
I think the kids understood.
September 14th, 2009 at 6:59 pm
Great to have you back, Mike, I’v missed your posts over the summer. Congrats on the national license, fine work. I thought I was busy with a GU8 team, a BU8 team, and ref-ing B/GU12 games in our league. With your schedule I look like a slouch! Hope the season goes well. Cheers, Tim