Meeting Minutes – 4/21/09
Meeting Held at Avon Lake Public Library Present: Jim Coyne, Daegen Duvall, Linda Glasser, John Kenny, Mary O’Malley, Lynn Miller, Ingrid Mills Purposes for forming a soccer boosters club: Provide a foundation and support system to enable the program to move into an elite level in the Cleveland area. Ensure continuity in the program so that future generations do not have to “reinvent the wheel” but rather will be able to take the program and continue to step up to higher levels. Create an environment where our players can expand and develop their skills. Create an environment where the valuable lessons of teamwork and goal achievement can be realized through a positive 4 year experience in the program. Topics covered: 1) Attendance at recent meetings has been low to minimal. To adjust to the reality of our group, we will reduce the number of meetings per year to 6. In the other 6 months without a meeting a newsletter will be published keeping everyone informed of what is happening within the program. The schedule will look as follows: Meetings Newsletters April Jan. May Feb. June March Aug. July Sept. Nov. Oct. Dec.
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Shorepals Soccer Club Meeting – 4/21/09 In addition, we are looking for one parent per grade year ( Freshman, Soph., etc.) to serve as a coordinator for that grade. Their duties will be similar to that of the team parent at the club or travel levels. We will need them to contact the parents in that grade year and make sure that everyone has signed up for the various functions that we need volunteer help with. This way it will be easier to contact smaller groups of people which will help to make sure everything is moving forward even when attendance may be low. It is still best to have healthy attendance at meetings as things get planned and completed faster that way. Next meeting will be on 5/19 at 7:00 p.m. at a location to be determined. 2) Coaches Update – Important Note – a parent meeting will be held on Thursday April 30th at 7:00 p.m. at the high school. One parent per player will need to be in attendance as the coaching staff will be presenting their program and schedule for the summer and fall season. We quickly reviewed the calendar and you will see notes about the various activities below. Coach Duvall explained the planned makeup of the teams as follows – 16 on Varsity, 16 on JV Maroon, and 18 on JV Gold. We anticipate 50 girls in our program this year. Therefore attendance, while not mandatory, at the team camp and Strongsville Showcase during the 3rd week of July will give the girls an excellent opportunity to showcase their skills for the Fall season. On another note, a better strategy has been worked out this year regarding our 2 JV teams. Their games have been scheduled on different days which will facilitate player movement between the teams and will ensure that we have an adequate number of players on game day. Also, the coaching staff will be approaching the athletic dept. with the idea of having at least two of the JV Gold games played on the high school field. The balance of their games will be played at Troy. Parents and players be ready for a big challenge this year! 3) Concessions: We will need new volunteers to run our concession stand next year. It would be optimal to have parents from each grade level to be familiar with the operations of the concession stand as this will facilitate a smooth transition from year to year. Below are the positions that we need filled for the next year. Let me know if you are interested.
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Shorepals Soccer Club Meeting – 4/21/09 1) Setup – this would involve getting the stand ready to go by the 5:00 p.m. start of the JV games. We will need a new volunteer or team of volunteers for next year. We really need some volunteers here, no one has stepped forward! 2) Staff – this is usually not a problem as people sign up and work their shifts. Ideally, people only need to work one game per season. JV parents work Varsity games and Varsity parents work JV games. 3) Close –up – we need someone to close down the stand, pack up the food, secure the money, etc. Once again, we will need a new set of volunteers for next year. 4) Inventory – we need a volunteer to keep the food and equipment between games and over the offseason. Need new volunteers here also. 5) Purchaser – we need a volunteer to purchase the food supplies we need to stock the stand. Ingrid Mills has volunteered to fill job once again this year. 6) Financial – volunteer to manage the booster club account, deposit receipts, and dole out money for apparel & other items. This will fall to John Kenny initially. 4) Fundraising: Our next two fundraising events will both be coming up in June. One is the Father’s Day Tournament and the other is the Duct Tape festival. We need volunteers to head up both of these events. We will also be asking our soccer families to work at both of these events. More details are listed under the Team Related Activities section below. In addition, we will be attempting to make our group events into revenue generating events which will at least cover the costs and hopefully much more. Below you will read about events such as the Alumni game and the Shoregal Yearbook which we have some new ideas for.
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Shorepals Soccer Club Meeting – 4/21/09 5) Team Related Activities: These are activities that we do during the year for and with the girls. We need to find volunteers as coordinators for next year for the activities listed. A brief summary of what we have done over the past year is listed below: 1) Father’s Day Tournament – We work at two field locations during the two days of this tournament. We need someone to coordinate the logistics of the two locations including getting volunteers to work at the two locations and setup/closeup. We have general instructions on how to run the stands as well as data on what needs to be bought and how much. This is a critical need – we are less than 60 days away and we still do not have a volunteer. 2) Duct Tape Festival - We work the three days of the festival manning a booth where we sell duct tape and other promotional items. Last year, the program received $1,000 for our efforts. This has traditionally been held over the Father’s Day weekend also, so it makes a very busy but lucrative weekend for our program. Karim Nasr and Ingrid Mills have volunteered, so we will work out the details shortly. 3) Relay for Life – Our main community service project as a team. We raise money by walking, having car washes, and running games at the Relay itself. Our “score a goal and get a stuffed animal” is always a hit. Yes, we do stay the entire night. Need an overall coordinator and two parents per shift to oversee the girls. Pat Donegan has volunteered to head this event for the 3rd year in a row. We will also be doing something in honor of Sammy Harris. 4) Alumni Game & Picnic – This event has been tentatively scheduled for Sunday July 12th in the afternoon and early evening. We want to do some fundraising at this event and are thinking about holding a reverse raffle or at the very least a 50/50 raffle. Another area where we will need someone to coordinate the event. 5) Lorain County Showcase – We will not be hosting this and we will only be sending our JV teams. So, no fundraising will come from this event.
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Shorepals Soccer Club Meeting – 4/21/09 6) Annual weekend outing – This is a team building event to get the girls comfortable with each other and revved up for the season. Update – coach Nate Taylor has helped us out quite a bit here and has planned for the girls to go down to Pilgrim Hills Camp which is somewhat near Columbus. The dates are August 7 – 9th Friday, Sat., & Sunday and will involve camping, canoeing, etc. No soccer, no lectures, just spending time together having fun. We will need to have a number of parent chaperones to assist with this weekend. More details and costs to follow as we get closer. 7) Team Dinners – We discussed the pros and cons of the team dinners held in the format that we used this year. There seems to be a strong sentiment to going back to the full team format which has been done in the past for at least a few times next year. The Srails, the Glassers, and the Kowalskis have all volunteered to host one of these full team dinners for next year. 8) Senior Night – Next year’s senior parents will need to coordinate. After 4 years in the program, we need to ensure that the girls are properly recognized in a dignified manner. 9) End of season gifts – Need coordinator; also parents of seniors plan on helping. 10) End of season party – I think the parents enjoy the socializing more than the girls, but it is a positive way to end the season no matter what our results. We will need someone who would like to host this event. 11) Post season games – We need to make a habit of attending District championship games, Regional games, and State Tournament games. Hopefully, we will soon be playing in these games. For that matter, we need to have our JV girls attend our own playoff games. At any rate, the girls need to experience the atmosphere at these games so that when they do play in them, they know what to expect. The crowds and atmosphere at Regional and State games are very different than your normal regular season game. Those who prepare for success will experience that success. Once again, I will need a volunteer to coordinate this activity.
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Shorepals Soccer Club Meeting – 4/21/09 6) Program Related Activities: These are specific tasks that can be done by parents to support and enhance the overall soccer program: 1) Program – My long term plan has been to make the program self sustaining and at least pay for itself by selling advertisements. This year, we are going to attempt to make that a reality. Jim Coyne has graciously offered to head up the selling of ads for our program and he is very enthusiastic that this is a do-able project. He will be explaining the details at our parent meeting on 4/30. 2) Website – please continue to visit our website – www.alshoregalsoccer.org . We continue to add more links and more information. This is the place to find out about all things Shoregal soccer. A main intent of this website is for it to be a resource for both the girls and their parents. Thanks to Pat Tarter who is our resident webmaster. 3) Film games – We are looking for new volunteers for next year. We would like to film Varsity games, JV games, and focus on filming the girls who intend to play in college so that game films can be made for each girl to send to various colleges. We need both parents and JV’s to help with this task and there will be some compensation involved. Update – Coach Duvall has arranged for a bank of 3 cameras to be available for our use through the high school AV dept. One will be used to film the game for coaching staff use and the other two will be used to film individual girls who are interested in playing in college and need to make a highlight tape for prospective coaches. We need volunteers to man the cameras both home & away and will use some combination of JV’s and parents to get this done. Let me know if you would like to volunteer. 4) Game Banners – We are trying to create an atmosphere and make girls soccer games an event. Banners and signs add to the ambiance. We want to expand our sign making for next season. 5) Stat Keeper – right now the coaches handle this duty, but it would be helpful if a parent was willing to keep stats while watching the game. We will instruct you on what to do, you just need to be very observant. Karim Nasr has volunteered for this important job for this year.
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Shorepals Soccer Club Meeting – 4/21/09 6) Scouting – once again the coaches handle when they can, but it would be helpful to have others involved to lessen the burden. We would like to scout ahead on challenging opponents and you would be instructed on what to look for. 7) Soccer ball sign keeper – We need someone to coordinate the soccer ball signs for the varsity and store over the winter/summer and do a little maintenance when needed. Mary O’Malley has volunteered to babysit our signs again over the offseason. Please get your signs over to her. 8) Picture taking – Vic Strimbu has volunteered to help us again this year with both our Shoregal Yearbook pictures and a season highlight disk as well. 7) Offseason Program: We were able to field 3 indoor teams comprised of our returning players plus our incoming freshmen for the Winter session. In addition, we were able to put together a team for the girls who played winter sports for the Spring session. Everyone who wanted to play had the opportunity and almost every player in our program took advantage. There were also footskill sessions offered to the girls. During March, April, & May the coaches are running an offseason conditioning program at the high school 3 days per week. We also have a number of girls on the Track & Field team and they are doing very well. Add to that the girls playing club soccer and we should have a very strong start to our Fall season. 8) Shoregal Soccer History: I have the all time stats put together with the info. that has been made available to me, but I am still missing data for a number of years. Info. that I need to make the records complete include: 1) I need to borrow a 1999 ALHS yearbook from whoever may have one. 2) I need help with data from 1999, 2000, 01, 02, & 03. I have minimal or no data at all from those years. Coincidentally, they happen to be the highest goal scoring years in the history of the program. Anyone that knows of any players or parents from that era, please let me know. I would like to get in contact with them to see what data that they may have.
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Shorepals Soccer Club Meeting – 4/21/09 9) College Corner – This is a feature where I will present options that are available for the girls to play soccer in college. Many parents are bewildered by where to start to find a place for their daughter to play in college. One of the functions of our booster club should be to help parents through this process and we have compiled a number of resources to help. I have on hand the The Sport Source’s Women’s Soccer Guide which lists 1,300 women’s college soccer programs throughout the U.S. The book is available to be circulated among all the parents in our program. Let me know if you want to take a look. Also, we have a number of links on our website to assist with college recruiting. In addition, I have the following three books on college recruiting on hand: a. The Student-Athlete & College Recruiting by Rick Wire b. Athletic Scholarships for Dummies c. Make the Team The Art of Self-Recruiting by Avi Stopper These are all available to be circulated throughout the group. The coaching staff has expressed a sincere interest in helping the girls to play soccer in college. They have numerous contacts with college coaches, they are going to attempt to have coaches attend our more significant games, and are going to circulate info.on the girls on a wider basis. In this set of minutes, I would like present some information on how to get involved with refereeing. Becoming a referee is a great way for your daughters to keep involved with the sport of soccer. There is a tremendous need for young refs in our sport. It is easy to tell from going to games that our ref base is aged and there are few women out there. The game needs an infusion of young enthusiastic refs to make it much more enjoyable. Now, how do you get involved at the collegiate level. It is actually easier than you would think. The place to start in college is at the intramural level. Every college offers intramural soccer now and they need people (students) to ref the games. The larger the college, the more urgent the need. Someone who has played soccer in high school and is already acquainted with the rules will make their transition to refereeing much easier. It is a great way to get game experience and work on positioning and control of the game. You will also get plenty of complaining from the players so that will prepare you for dealing with parents. Once you feel comfortable, it is a natural progression to go get your certification.
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Shorepals Soccer Club Meeting – 4/21/09 There are 10 grades of soccer referee certification starting with Grade 10 and moving up to Grade 1 which is an international and World Cup level referee. At each level, certification involves classroom instruction, some demonstration, and a written test. The larger universities will help you to get certified as a part of the intramural program. A college age girl can easily be certified to ref youth league and travel games. You usually need to stay at a grade level at the lower levels for a minimum of one season before you can test for the next highest level. So a typical scenario would consist of refereeing intramural games during the week and then getting certified to do youth league games in the surrounding community on weekends. Remember you get paid to do this, so it is a nice way to earn some college money “under the table” – so to speak. Then, when the girls come home from college in mid May they could work youth games around Avon Lake and work tournaments also like Westlake and the Father’s Day. At the end of 4 years or so of college, they would have accumulated enough experience to go and be certified for the high school level. I think most people feel that the quality of high school refs need to be improved. A good ref can make the game enjoyable for both the players and fans and themselves. We also need to see more experienced female soccer players becoming refs and doing girls games. So, try to sell this concept to your daughter – they may be more interested than you would think. For those that would be interested in refereeing, a great resource in Avon Lake would be Todd Galloway or Duane Beach amongst others. Also, the internet has loads of info. Try: www.asktheref.com or www.askasoccerreferee.com The topic for the next minutes will be our annual college soccer camp info.
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Shorepals Soccer Club Meeting – 4/21/09 10) Open Discussion: 1) We are looking into coming out with a line of Shoregal soccer wear which could be worn by both the players and parents and provide a consistent look. We may also offer the line to the ALSO travel program as well so everyone can look like a Shoregal!! 2) We are also exploring the idea of more high school involvement with Travel soccer. Strongsville uses this approach with obvious results. Our coaching staff is already working with Travel soccer and IDP in Avon Lake. Next, we would like to assign one or two of our Varsity players to work with each girls travel team to help with practice and to assist in the instruction of fundamental soccer skills. This would probably be a thrill for the younger girls and would provide service hours for the high school girls along with the “giving back” that Gino Strippoli envisioned and is one of the elements involved in Gino Strippoli scholarship. Update – The coaches have arranged for the girls to work with teams during their footskills and tactical training sessions each week. This could logically be expanded in future years to the girls taking a more active role with the individual teams and even assisting the coaches on the sidelines during games.
Our next meeting of the SHOREPALS will be on Tuesday May 19th at 7:00 p.m. at a location to be named later.
Respectfully submitted by John Kenny
