Somerville High School Pioneers

Team Handbook

Striving For Excellence in Everything We Do

Somerville High School Pioneers Boys Soccer

Striving for Excellence in Everything We Do

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PHILOSOPHY OF COACHING

DEFINITION OF SUCCESS

RULES AND REGULATIONS

EVALUATION METHODS

CONDITIONING AND TRAINING

TRYOUTS

ACADEMIC STANDARDS

TEAM GOALS AND EXPECTATIONS

LINES OF COMMUNICATION

THINGS TO TEACH BEFORE FIRST GAME

OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE PHILOSOPHY

PHILOSOPHY OF COACHING, ATHLETICS AND COMPETITION

Athletics and competition is a tremendous vehicle to teach players about life. Life has plenty of ups and downs. Some are predictable while others are not. Sometimes people or events appear in your favor while at other times they appear completely against you. The soccer field is a tremendous real life classroom to teach players how to deal with these types of experiences that will come their way in life. As the coach, I have a significant platform to influence kids towards this end. How I act, what I say and how I respond to competition, problems, conflicts, winning and losing will leave a lasting impression in my athletes’ minds. More important than winning, fame, or fortune, is my character. Character that is built on integrity, honesty and morals is one that will leave a positive impression on the student athletes and let them know that there is more to life than just winning.

My goal is to train my team at the highest level possible and use the particular types of experiences that accompany this level of play to teach about life. At the same time, I know it is vitally important for a coach to make the athletes’ experiences fun while maintaining this high level of expectation for achievement. When a person enjoys what they are doing, despite the difficulties, stress, and obstacles, they are more apt to perform better, process their experiences mentally in a much healthier manner, and make better life decisions. They are also better prepared to take their experiences and learning and teach the lessons to others.

“When a leader takes responsibility for his own actions and mistakes, he not only sets a good example, he shows a healthy respect for people on his team.” –Mike Krzyzewski

“There are five fundamental qualities that make every team great: communication, trust, collective responsibility, caring and pride. I like to think of each as a separate finger on the fist. Any one individually is important. But all of them together are unbeatable.” –Mike Krzyzewski

DEFINITION OF SUCCESS

Every person, team, organization should have a definition of success. By this definition, a person, team or organization can evaluate how they did during a quarter, game, day, month or year. If winning games and championships is the only definition of success, then a person who grows and develops into a better person, better athlete, or better student is still a failure if he or she did not “win the prize.” A 0-10 team would be a failure if they lost to the undefeated, eventual state champions by a 4-3 margin. Thus, I disagree with this common definition of success. I believe that success should be determined if improvement is shown, if progress is made or if a person, team or organization uses all of its abilities, resources and energy to accomplish a task and does the best they can during the process. Using a drastic example, I believe a student who is struggling and begins with a 25% term average and works tremendously hard to raise it each subsequent term to finish with a 60% average should be considered a success. My favorite definition of success is penned by Coach John Wooden of the UCLA Bruins. “Success is the peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.” (

COACHING GOALS

  1. To teach each student/athlete that more important than winning games are the many lessons and values that can be taken from their athletic experiences. Examples: self-discipline, respect for others, sportsmanship skills, leadership skills, how to win and lose with class, working cooperatively towards a goal and commitment.
  2. To develop the technical and tactical soccer skills of each student/athlete.
  3. To prepare and develop the freshmen and junior varsity players for the varsity team.
  4. To assist student-athletes in all matters related to the selection of post-secondary educational and athletic opportunities.

RULES AND REGULATIONS

A team must set rules and regulations that act as a guide to achieving the team's goals. Discipline is necessary to reinforce behaviors and attitudes that will keep a team on the path to reaching its goals. Any violation of these rules will result in appropriate disciplinary action.

  1. Respect - Any form of disrespect towards any teammate, coach, opposing player and/or referee will not be tolerated. This includes lying, cheating, taunting, badmouthing, cursing or using other inappropriate actions.
  2. Be on Time - All players must be on time for all meetings, practices, games, etc.
  3. Preparation - All players must bring all necessary equipment to each meeting, practice, and game. This includes necessary and appropriate clothing. Soccer is not a fashion show and inappropriate dress will not be tolerated.
  4. Academic Standards –All players in the program must maintain satisfactory grades throughout the school year.

Consequences:

Repeated offenses or severe cases of misbehavior will result in loss of playing time, suspensions and/or dismissal from program.

EVALUATION METHODS

Players are evaluated in 5 major categories:

  1. Technical Ability
  2. Dribbling, receiving, shooting, passing
  3. Mastery of the ball
  4. Tactical Awareness
  5. How, when and where – decision making on the field
  6. Physical Capabilities
  7. Speed, quickness, stamina, strength, size
  8. Pacer Test
  9. 2 mile – 13:30 varsity goal
  10. Interval Training
  11. Mental Capabilities
  12. Dealing with conflict, stress, winning/losing
  13. Attitude toward peers, officials, coaches, teachers, etc.

CONDITIONING AND TRAINING

Conditioning during preseason training camp and throughout the season will be varied to simulate the continually changing situations of an individual game. No player is continually sprinting or maintaining a specific level of speed throughout an entire game. Instead, there are periods of walking, jogging, running and sprinting. There are intervals of rest and high work rates. Therefore, activities must simulate these conditions to give each player the chances to train their bodies to adapt to changing game conditions.

Coaches will avoid simply running laps, sending the team on long distance runs, etc. on a regular basis. There are certain times when these types of conditioning are appropriate but conditioning should be part of every drill and activity. To accomplish this, daily practices should be built using an interval training approach.

TRYOUTS

Players are expected to come to training camp in shape and ready to play. An off-season and summer training regimen will be provided for all returning players and to new incoming first year players to provide them with a plan to achieve the goal of being ready for the first day of camp.

  • A varsity squad consisting of 16-20 players will be chosen.
  • A junior varsity team of 16-20 players will be chosen.
  • A freshmen team of 16-18 players will be chosen (if available)

ACADEMIC STANDARDS

Each member of the program will be expected to maintain their academic progress according to all school, team and NJSIAA standards. Periodically, the coaching staff will contact each team member’s teachers to ascertain the status of the player’s academic progress. This feedback will be used to develop necessary plans to keep each player eligible and on track for graduation.

Team Goals and Expectations

  1. Work hard and improve every day
  2. Play as a team
  3. Maintain academic excellence
  4. Display integrity, good character, and values above all else
  5. Give 100% every day
  6. Do not do anything detrimental to the team or yourself
  7. The Hand-Shake Promise

At the beginning of Pre-Season it is imperative that each one of the coaches shakes hands with each one of the players. This is a promise to each other that, from the beginning of the season to the end, when I am at practice or a game I will give you 100% and you will also give 100%.

LINES OF COMMUNICATION

Lines of communication are very important to the success of a team and program. When players do not understand their roles or do not understand their coaches’ decisions (this does not imply agreeing with coaches) there will be chances for dissention amongst the players. Likewise, when coaches do not understand their players’ perspectives or backgrounds, there is the opportunity for false opinions or impressions of a player’s motivation, work ethic and dedication.

Coaches and players should strive to continually be in contact with each other. This is the first line of defense. Parents should NOT contact a coach with a player problem unless their child has first gone to the coaches. Coaches will therefore not field any parent communications regarding player problems until the player first communicates with the coaches. This is also important life training as players will need to develop the ability and confidence to approach their superiors in the work world to work out problems.

The hierarchy of communication should follow these steps:

  1. Player to coaches
  2. Parent and player to coach
  3. Parent and player to coach and athletic director

24-hour rule – As emotions can run hi for everyone right after a game, coaches will not discuss playing time or other parent issues immediately after the game. We will be more than happy to meet and discus any issues the following day, when everyone has had time to decompress and assess the game or situation.

THINGS TO TEACH BEFORE FIRST GAME

  1. The formation of play (to be decided upon based upon team’s strengths and weakness)
  2. 4-4-2, 4-5-1, 4-3-3, 2-3-3-2
  3. Building from the back
  4. Defensive rolls
  5. Playing wide
  6. Free kicks (direct, indirect, corner)
  7. Offensive responsibilities
  8. Defensive responsibilities
  9. Throw in movement and Kick off play
  10. 1 v 1 through 4 v 4 attack and defend principles
  11. Technical principles of dribbling, passing, receiving and shooting

OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE PHILOSOPHY

The offensive object of my team will be to score more goals than our opponent. I believe that the entire team should be involved offensively and not separated into an offensive unit and defensive unit. As teams and players are different from year to year, an evaluation must be made as to which team alignment will best benefit the team offensively and defensively. The ideal situation would be a team whose players can play in multiple positions on the field throughout the match and make these tactical decisions based upon the changing circumstances of the match and needs of the team at given times. The Dutch call this “total team soccer.”

There are two main ways to begin an offensive attack. The first is right after a change of possession. Typically, this is where most goals are generated from, particularly when the loss of possession occurs in the defensive third of the field. Players will need to be trained to attack quickly and smartly when they gain possession of the ball. The second is from a build up beginning with the back 4 players. These back 4 players must be willing and able to initiate an attack. Training sessions will teach various skills and tactics to initiate attacks from the back third of the field.

The defensive objective for my team will be to give up zero goals per game. All 11 players on the field are required to be part of the defensive strategy. Defending becomes must simpler when pressure is put on the ball. Pressure forces opposing players to keep their head down. This eliminates many offensive options. Second, attacking players must be made predictable. On ball pressure and cover defense must force attacking players to play in one direction. The rest of the team will benefit when they know where and how the attackers are going. These two main defensive principles are the foundation of our defensive strategy.

Parent and Player Acknowledgement

Please sign below to acknowledge that you have read the Somerville High School Boys Soccer Team Handbook, and return to your coaching staff.

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Parent/Guardian Signature

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Player Signature