Dear Marcellus Youth Soccer Coaches,
Thank you for agreeing to coach this year!
Our season this year will start on Saturday, September 10th for Coaches and Assistant Coaches, with a mandatory coaches meeting at 8:30a.mat the High School LGI room which should last about 15 minutes. We will then move to the stadium for a clinic on some coaching techniques from the Girl’s Varsity Soccer Coach, Laurie Updike and Boy’s Varsity Soccer Coach, Mark Sunheimer-which should last about an hour. Equipment bags and team jerseys (for new players only)will be distributed at the meeting. Please advise your coordinator if, for some reason, you will be unable to attend.
***U12 Coaches Only – the Varsity Coaches will spend time with you at the end of the clinic to review with you proper heading techniques. You must attend this portion of the clinic!***
Heading policy: Our heading policy is that no heading is allowed by any player U10 and below. There should be NO instruction from coaches for U10 and below regarding heading. Refs will not penalize for a head ball but coaches should deter their players from heading in a game or practice as per USA soccer guidelines.
Heading is only allowed at the U12 level. Coaches will receive instruction at our coaches clinic. Heading instruction in practice should be for a short duration of time.
Background checks: As part of our NYSWest Insurance, coaches and assistant coaches are required to have background checks. This is mandatory to be a MYS soccer coach! You will receive an email from Rosterpro which facilitates these background checks. The online registration process will take just a couple of minutes. Your coach pass will be good for 2 years. If you are uncomfortable with this process for any reason, please contact your coordinator. Thank you for your understanding and commitment to this process!
As coaches you will have approximately 8 to 16 children on your team (depending on the age group). Our first season game will be held on Saturday, September 17th. Schedules will be available online, along with your team rosters. Please make copies for any players/parents who do not have access to the website. Also, please advise your coordinator of any changes/corrections needed.
Please contact your assistant coach and each player's parent by, no later thanSeptember 3rd. At that time tell the parent the night and time you have chosen for practice (Your coordinator will also need this information, please forward that onto them if you haven’t already), along with the time of your first scheduled game. Schedules and other important information ( cancellations of games due to inclement weather) will be posted on the web site at marcellusyouthsoccer.org. Please advise your parents of this valuable resource.
Also, when contacting parents, please inform them that they need the following equipment for their child:
1. Shorts or sweats;
2. Shin guards (Mandatory @ games and practices)
3. Socks that cover shin guards;
4. Cleats or Sneakers (used ones are available at concession stands on Saturdays);
5. Soccer ball (if have, but not necessary);
6. Water bottle;
7. Reversible team jersey.
All teams should have at least one practice prior to the start of the season.
You will receive an email with your login ID and password to get into the MYS system. From there, you can email your team. You go under “Admin”, “Members”, “email members”, and then from there you scroll down the right hand side of the screen and click on your team. That is the only thing that needs highlighting. Click on “Find Members” and it should pull up your team. There might be duplicates per family.
Under the “Reply to” type in your email address and under the “From” you can put your name. Under “Edit Recipients” you can just select one email per family if you want. Then you can add a Subject line and type in your message. Hit “Send” at the bottom.
The emailing through the system is a really nice feature to get information to your players quickly and easily. You can play around in the system. There’s a lot of helpful features and it’s a great resource for general information.
Please refer to the website for some of the basic rules/guidelines for your age group. Also, ONLY MYS Board members can cancel games due to weather. If we feel it is necessary to cancel games, it will be posted on the website by 8 a.m. In the event that games are cancelled, coaches are to contact their players and advise them. Coaches do have the discretion to cancel their practices due to inclement weather. If you have any questions about field conditions please call your Coordinators.
Any injuries should be reported to Mike Murphy at (315) 956-5813. Our injury policy is on the website under the “Mission and Philosophy” section.
Our games are played on Saturdays through October29th, and then we break for the winter. We begin again with the SAME coaches and teams around the beginning of May and continue through the middle of June. Players are NOT allowed to move up a level or switch teams between fall and spring sessions.
We also want to remind coaches that training our youth to play soccer is only one part of the program. The other is training our young refs. Because of this, we are asking you to be especially conscious of how you are treating the referees. On the field it is the referee’s game and we, as an organization, are trying to teach the children to respect the referees, even if it is a bad call. As always, we encourage you to correct a referee if a call is blatantly wrong – but subtlety! When you see a blatant bad call, call a time out and discuss it with both coaches and the referee. Or just pull the ref aside at half-time or the end of the game to discuss. As always, we thank you for supporting both parts of our program!
Please be aware of the MYS Mercy Rule. If during a game, your team is ahead by 5 goals, we ask that you adjust your players, i.e. pull back your stronger players or make 4 passes before attempting to score, etc. This will help to ensure an enjoyable for all!
Concussions have been a popular topic in sports these days. Information about symptoms, what to do if you suspect a concussion, etc is posted on our website.
Again, thank you for volunteering your time! We will see you on September 10th at our coaches meeting. Please let me know if you have any trouble with the system or if you have any questions! I am looking forward to a great soccer season!
Thank you,
XXXXXXX
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