Memorial Day Tournement

Hello everyone,
   I apologize for not posting for awhile. As you the Memorial Day Tournament is approaching quickly and we need your help.  We need volunteers to help us in the concession stand over the weekend.  This is a huge and important fundraising opportunity for the MCAA.   The schedule is on the main page of the MCAA web site.  Please take a look at it and help us fill in the slots.  You choose your slots then send your request to the volunteer coordinator whose email is located right under the schedule.
   We will also need help with set up on Friday from 3pm to 6pm and break down on Monday from 2pm to 5pm.  I do not suspect that it will take the whole time. Please email me if you can help with this.
   I cannot stress enough how important this is for our organization so please help us out.
Also if your child is participating in the tournament please make sure you get a medical release form from your coach and get it back to them before the Friday of the tournament. If you do not your child will not be able to play.
  Lastly,  so far I have seen so really good soccer games over the past weeks in all age levels.  I have also seen an incredibly positive and supportive group of parents cheering on from the sidelines.  Thanks it means a lot to me and to our program.

Crunch Time

 Hello everyone,
     We begin the final week of preparation for the spring season.  Mother nature has not been kind this spring with our teams being stuck in the gym.  However it looks like we will be starting the outdoor schedule next week.  So here is where we stand with this situation right now.
    It appears the High School field will be avaliable to us starting next week. The town fields are still closed and I will not find out if we can use them until Monday afternoon.  As soon as I find out if they are able to be used I will notify the coaches who will then notify there teams.  This could be a hectic time so please check your email and phone messages often on Monday afternoon. 

   Tommorow I will be looking for some help down at the field at 9am to move some goals around and some general pick up. It should not take to long.  So please come down and help if you can.  I would also like to find some volunteers for lining the three fields we will have for the season. 

   You will also see either Wendy or myself showing up at practices this week in order to have your child sign there player cards.  This is important if your child does not have a player card for the first game they cannot play.  Also please get your code of conducts back to your coaches this week or again your child will not be able to play.

   The uniforms will be in next week. I plan on giving them to the coaches on Friday.  So your child will most likely get them before their first game. With the uniform you will also find an order form for the backpacks, warm up suits, and car decals if you choose to get any of them. 
  
  Also  I would love to have pictures from all the teams in action this season. If you take some and can send them to me that would be great.

   Thanks

On our way...

Hello everyone,
  By now every team has practiced at least once and we are underway for the 2011 spring season.  It appears the warm weather last week was a tease.  So it looks like we will be in the gym for practices next week as well. 
   Field set up - In the coming weeks as the weather hopefully gets warmer we will start preparing the fields for the season games and practices.  This will require a lot of coordination and work and I will be looking for help. 
   Schedule -  The game schedule will be released on April 1 from the Granite State Soccer League.  When we move to outdoor practices the schedule will be as follows:
U14- Girls - Matthews - 6pm to 7:30 - Mondays and Wednesdays at the High School
U14 - Boys - Ayotte - 6pm to 7:30pm - Tuesdays and Thursdays at the High School
U10 - Girls - Ormiston and Bamford - 6pm to 7:30pm - Mondays and Wednesdays at Keyes Field
U10 - Boys - Ducharme and Benjamin - 6pm to 7:30pm - Tuesdays and Thursdays at Keyes Field
U12 - Girls - Grill - 6pm to 7:30pm - Mondays and Wednesdays at Kaley Park
U12- Boys - Tronkowski - 6pm to 7:30pm - Monday and Wednesdays at Kaley Park
U12 - Boys - Faucher - 6pm to 7:30pm - Tuesday and Thursdays at Kaley Park
    Code of Conducts - Just a reminder all parents/guardians and players must sign the code of conduct prior to the first game of the season or the player will not be allowed to play.
    Memorial Day Tournament - I have asked the coaches to find if there is enough interest on their team to participate in the Amherst soccer clubs memorial day tournament. Please let your coach know if you want your child to play.  The tournament is filling up quickly with over 260 teams already signed up. The tournament will be using the MCAA fields again this year.  We are being allowed to enter our teams into the tournament at no charge in exchange I will be asking for volunteer help during the weekend.
     Comedy Night - The MCAA comedy night is Friday, April 1 at Hampshire Hills at 7pm tickets are $20.00 per person. This is a great way to have a good time and help the MCAA continue to provide quality youth sports for the Milford area.
     Soccer gear - In the coming weeks we will begin offering soccer backpacks and warmup suits for sale. Look for further details soon.

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Important Gym Schedule Change

   Hello everyone,
       We have lost the use of the Middle school gym for our practices.  So we will be using the Heron Pond gym and the gym at Bales school.  We will be doing split times at each of these gyms during the week.  I have put in bold the changes from the old schedule.  These practices start the week of March 21st.  The schedule for the U10 teams on Saturdays at Bales has not changes from the last schedule,  the first Saturday practices for the U10 teams is March 26.
      For these gym practices please have your child wear shin pads and soccer socks, and bring water. More importantly please make sure they wear sneakers or indoor soccer flats,  NO CLEATS.
     I will be putting more information up here soon with outdoor practice schedule and the home game schedule so please check back often.

Team/Coach
U14Girls/Matthews -  HERON POND  - Monday/Wednesday  - 7:00pm to 8:30pm

U14Boys/Ayotte - BALES SCHOOL - Monday/Friday - 7:00pm to 8:30pm

U12Boys/Tronkowski - Heron Pond Gym - Monday/Friday - 5:30pm to 7:00pm

U12Boys/Faucher - Bales Gym - Monday/Friday - 5:30pm to 7:00pm

U12Girls/Grill -  Wednesday, Heron Pond- 530pm to 7:00pm  - Friday, Heron Pond - 7:00pm to 8:30pm

U10Boys/Ducharme - Bales Gym - Saturdays - 9:00am to 10:30am

U10Boys/Heiple - Bales Gym - Saturdays - 10:30am to 12:00pm

U10Girls/Ormiston - Bales Gym - Saturdays - 12:00pm to 1:30pm

U10Girls/Bamford - Bales Gym - Saturdays - 1:30pm to 3:00pm

Gym Practice Schedule

Hello everyone,
   The gym practice schedule is as follows:
Team/Coach
U14Girls/Matthews -  Middle school gym  - Monday/Wednesday  - 7:00pm to 8:30pm

U14Boys/Ayotte - Middle School gym - Tuesday/Thursday - 7:00pm to 8:30pm

U12Boys/Tronkowski - Heron Pond Gym - Monday/Friday - 6:00pm to 7:30pm

U12Boys/Faucher - Bales Gym - Monday/Friday - 6:00pm to 7:30pm

U12Girls/Grill -  Wednesday at Heron Pond - Friday at Middle School - 6:00pm to 7:30pm

U10Boys/Ducharme - Bales Gym - Saturdays - 9:00am to 10:30am

U10Boys/Heiple - Bales Gym - Saturdays - 10:30am to 12:00pm

U10Girls/Ormiston - Bales Gym - Saturdays - 12:00pm to 1:30pm

U10Girls/Bamford - Bales Gym - Saturdays - 1:30pm to 3:00pm

  These practices will begin the week of March 21.  Appropriate foot wear for the gym practices are sneakers or indoor soccer shoes - No Cleats.  We will practice in the gym until we can get outside. I will post the outdoor practice schedule early next week.  Your childs coach should be contacting you over the next couple of weeks to cover the details. 
  If you have any questions please feel free to email me.
              Thanks

Feeling a little bit like spring...

Hello everyone, 
    I hope everyone is enjoying your winter.  It sounds like we may get a little taste of spring at the end of this week.   We are plugging away getting organized for the coming spring soccer season.  One of the important things at the top of the agenda right now is organizing the uniforms.   Wendy is currently handling this and passes along this important message:
\

Hello spring soccer parents!

A quick reminder to PLEASE send me your child's jersey size and number requests (if they have one) as soon as possible. Jerseys are from the same company as this past fall, so if your child played fall soccer, base your size on that. If they did not, let me know what size they wear in regular clothes and I will do my best to get the right jersey size. IF YOU DO NOT tell me what size jersey your child needs I will order them one that is the average size for their team. If it is too big or too small and you want them to have a different size, you will have to cover the cost of the second jersey (and they will have to wear the first one while they wait for the new one to come in). Our budget only allows for one per child. So please, let me know what size you want, even if I know your child and you think I can figure it our for myself. The sizes available are Youth Small - Large and Adult Small - Extra Large.

Also, IF you have a requested number, please send me alternates. I have heard from 76 out of 110 parents already, so many numbers are taken. You do not have to request a number, I will assign one if you don't. But I do need those jersey sizes by Feb. 20.

Thanks for your quick response to this!

Wendy Ayotte

  Her email to respond is wendyanh@yahoo.com

   We have managed to reserve enough gym space so that beginning the week of March 21 all teams will start practicing.   I'm putting together a schedule and will be running it by the coaches at our meeting tomorrow night.   Tentatively the U12 and U14 teams will practice twice during the week nights and the U10 teams will practice once a week on Saturdays.  
   A couple of schedule things to keep in mind for the season. There could be games scheduled during the April vacation weekends, and I believe right now most coaches are planning on participating in the huge Amherst Soccer Club Memorial Day weekend tournament.   

   As far as getting our players ready for the season you can help play a part.  As soon as the weather allows get them running.   If you can have them work on a nice jog then a sprint to simulate the type of running while playing soccer.  Another important thing to have them work on is ball touches. Simple things like just moving the ball back forth with both feet or some juggling.  Also take sometime to look at some videos on you tube or watch an EPL game on ESPN2 on Saturday mornings they are usually on at 7am or 10am.  Speaking of the EPL if you did not catch Wayne Rooney's bycycle winning goal this past weekend I have included it below it was amazing. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8zWSQ489nc

That's all for now!

 

Soccer Kit Information

Hello everyone,
    We are in the process of organizing the order for the spring uniforms and we need information from each of you.  We need your child's shirt size and if requested jersey number.   The shirts we will be using this spring will be the same as we used for the fall season, so this should help with figuring out an appropriate size.  The request for a specific jersey number will be on a first come first serve basis through email only and will only be accepted until 2/20/11.  If we do not receive a request we will just assign your child a number.   Also your child's last name will be printed on the back of the jersey and will be the last name that was filled out on their registration form.  Please let us know if this is not correct.
    The email address to send this information to is wendyanh@yahoo.com  Do not send this information to me.   Please send the jersey information, number requests, and any last name changes to this email address only. Please send your information in a single email this is due to the large amount of kids this spring.  
    We will also be pricing out warm up suits and backpacks that can be purchased seperately.  We would love to have included this in our budget, but in order to keep our registration prices down we were not able to do this.  We will try to offer some sort of discount on these items.  You can look for information on these items in the future. These are not mandatory purchases, but were requested by a group of parents last year so we thought we would make them avaliable.
    That's all for now,
         Dan Ayotte
         Soccer Director
    

Dead of winter thinking spring...

Hello everyone,
    As January comes to a close I want to give you an update on our preparations for the spring.  Today was the last day to register teams with the Granite State Youth Soccer League.  All nine of our teams are registered.   The next step will be entering the rosters for the teams.
   As of today I'm still missing registration information from a handful of players. I will continue to try and contact these individuals. If you have not sent me the following information please contact me immediately.
    1by1 head shot, copy of birth certificate, and payment

  Beginning the week of March 21 we will have the use of gym space for practice.  Right now I have secured the Middle School and Heron Pond gyms, and will be getting Bales, hopefully, this week.  Once I have them all secured I will come up with a schedule. My intention is for the U14 and U12 teams to practice twice a week and the U10 teams once a week.  These practices will be very important for our teams to work on foot skills and conditioning.  As soon as the fields open we will move the practices outside.  The season will open on April 16, but I will not get the schedule until the end of March. 

    In the coming weeks we will be contacting you about your child's shirt size as we start to order the kits for the season.  This is shaping up to be a great spring season. We have a good group of coaches that are geared up and ready to go.  Help get your child in the mood by catching a EPL game on Espn 2 on Saturday mornings or watching some good you tube clips like the ones below. 
   That's all for now.  
    

Purpose Of the Blog

   Hello everyone,
     I decided a while ago to build a blog for the coaches so that we could discuss and share ideas about coaching the game of soccer. Plus it would give me another place to get information out to them instead of sending tons of emails.   Then I thought to myself why not do the same for the parents.  So here it is.
     I hope this will become a good source for you to find out what is going on in the game of soccer not only with the MCAA, but through out the world.  I will update this regularly with new links, vids, and recommended reading.
    I encourage you to become apart of this and add suggestions and comments.   If you have a link suggestion or a book recommendation please let us know so we can share it with everyone.  Also if you have a question, no matter how simple, please put it out there.  The better informed you are the more you can enjoy the game.
    I realize that everyone may not have the same love of soccer, but whatever your feelings I encourage you to take the time to learn more about the sport your child is involved in.
     Thanks