Lorain City Soccer Association

This coming Fall we will continue to introduce and hope to fully conform to the USYSA Rules for SSG.

Below are the suggested field sizes and on-field player amounts.

U11 & U12 Fields

U9 & U10 Fields

U7 & U8 Fields

U5 & U6 Fields

Here are the Rules:

U6 Rules

U6 ADDENDUM

U8 Rules

U8 ADDENDUM

WATCH THIS SPACE AS MORE INFO BECOMES AVAILABLE!! 

Lorain City Soccer Association

Meeting Minutes 3/20/07
In attendance

Janice Jennings Kathy Serfozo

Mark Ambrosio Robert Sanchez

Steve Heider Mike Folley

Christine Shuster Shawn Endicott

Tammy Dull Laura Fries

Shawn Clark Calvin Jones

Dave & Denise Kallas Scott & Johnna Wood

Milton Velazquez Tami Wysocki Read the rest of this entry »

Lorain City Soccer Association

Meeting Minutes 2/19/07

In attendance:
Frank & Michelle Griffith Robert Sanchez

Mark Ambrosio Scott & Johnna Wood Read the rest of this entry »

Lorain City Soccer Association
Meeting Minutes 1/23/07

In Attendance:
Steve Heider Johnna Wood
Rob Garcia Kirk Seekins
Christine Shuster Calvin Jones
John Jovanovski Robert Sanchez
Shawn (from Coast Guard) Becky (One of Robert S. parents)
Marco & Virginia (from Coast Guard) Read the rest of this entry »

In attendance:
Steve Heider
Nicole Jovanovski
Mark Ambrosio
Scott Wood
Read the rest of this entry »

Lorain City Soccer Association

Minutes for 10/17/06 meeting

In attendance:

Scott Wood Frank Griffith

Steve Heider Mark Ambrosio
Johnna Wood Calvin Jones

Robert Sanchez Jeff Kodman

Treasurer’s Report Read the rest of this entry »

Lorain City Soccer Association

Minutes for 9/18/06 meeting

In Attendance:

Steve Heider Nicole Jovanovski

Scott Wood Christine Shuster

Jeff Kodman Calvin Jones

Robert Sanchez Kathy Serfozo

Tammy Dull Read the rest of this entry »

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   Lorain City Soccer is growing and you can see it!  Go down to Longfellow Park any day of the week between 5pm and 7pm.  You will see a park full of children playing.  We have grown so much, that we could not afford to lose our 2nd Modified pitch to Middle School football.  So, we didn’t just replace the one that we lost, we installed a 3rd Modified pitch. It is now becoming apparent that we need to install a 4th Small Side pitch along Michigan Ave.  Here are the numbers for the last 5 years:

Fall 2001 we registered 81 players with the LCSL.

Fall 2002 we registered 188 players with the LCSL.

Fall 2003 we registered 207 players with the LCSL.

Fall 2004 we registered 179 players with the LCSL.

Fall 2005 we registered 119 players with the LCSL.

FALL 2006 WE REGISTERED 216 PLAYERS WITH THE LCSL!!

   After a short period of decline we have made a comeback.  Between June and August we offered 8 days of Footskills Clinics, featuring Basic to Premier level coaching, clinic attendance averaged 15 players per day.  At the July 14th Footskills Clinic players enjoyed being coached by and playing with Las Chivas de Guadalajara, one of the Worlds greatest teams!  August 12th Rick brought us our first Coaches Clinic, with our second to be held on the weekend of Sept. 16/17th.  On August 30th our application to become OYSAN Affiliates was voted on and accepted.  We have already begun to reap the benifits of Membership.  This Fall we also have 107 Peanut and In-House players joining us, look for them to take the pitch this week!  Lorain City Soccer had 4 teams advance to the Finals last spring.  The Lorain U9, U12 & U13 teams all went on to win their divisions and become Lorain County Champs. Our U11/12G team finished 4th in a very tough division.  This past weekend we had 7 teams bring home wins they are:

U14 Jovanovski,  U12 Ramos,  U11 Seekins,  U11G Jones,  U11 AASL Jovanovski,  U8 Soto  and  U8 Sanchez. 

   As we grow it becomes more and more important that our membership become and remain active.  We need you to aid in the week to week operations of your association.  This is a great time to get involved with the people and players that are commited to your success.  Simply step forward and ask how you can help!

See You on the Pitch,

Steve

Here are some of the resources that I have used:

http://www.decatursports.com/soccerdrills.htm

http://www.bettersoccermorefun.com/

http://www.oysan.org/coachingarticles.html

http://www.coacheshandsonsoccer.com/index.html

Your Public Library is also a great free place to go for help. One of my favorite tools are other coaches. I have watched many coaches from varying levels of play train their squads. It is very helpfull to see how the childern respond to a given exercise. Are they excited about what they are doing? Many “drills” just run the players through the “motions”, without requiring much thought on the players part. Drilling also can create alot of Downtime, with players waiting in lines for their next chance to touch the ball. If I find a drill that appeals to me on a fudamental level but involves Downtime, I will modify it to inject some energy.

Take a good look at your practice sessions. How many touches does each player get on the ball? Are you struggling with LOTS of chit-chat? If so then your players are not busy enough, maybe spending too much time waiting in line! We can only do so much as Parent/Coaches, we strive to find time for practice. We are constantly competing with video games, TV, gossip and all the other distractions bouncing around in our players minds. Todays youth soccer players also have to deal with sports conflicts, family life, school and the very serious “negative” pressures of the World.

Our training sessions should be a place for fun and focus, giving our children some escape. Youth soccer players would develop well in the neighborhood pick-up game (if such existed). These games have it all, recreation, escape, hard competition, moments to shine and time to get respect! But most of all, it is what the pick-up game lacks that is most important… ADULTS!

Kids Love to Play!

Steve

By Michael Langlois, author of “How Well Do You Communicate? A Guide to
Better Communication with Players and Parents for Youth Soccer Coaches”.

1. Let the coaches’ coach. If you are telling your son or daughter - or any other player for that matter - to do something different from what their coach is telling them, you create distraction and confusion.

2. It is very unnerving for many young players to try and perform difficult tasks on the field on the spur of the moment when parents are yelling at them from the sidelines. Let the kids play. If they have been well coached, they should know what to do on the field. If they make a mistake, chances are they will learn from it.

3. Do not discuss the play of specific young players in front of other parents. How many times do you hear comments such as, “I don’t know how that boy made this team…” or “she’s just not fast enough.”. Too many parents act as though their child is a ’star’, and the problem is someone else’s kid. Negative comments and attitudes are hurtful and totally unnecessary and kill parent harmony, which is often essential to youth
team success.

4. Discourage such toxic behavior by listening patiently to any negative comments that might be made, then address issues in a positive way. Speak to the positive qualities of a player, family or coach.

5. Do your level best not to complain about your son or daughter’s coaches to other parents. Once that starts, it is like a disease that spreads. Before you know it, parents are talking constantly in a negative way behind a coach’s back. (As an aside, if you have what you truly feel is a legitimate beef with your child’s coach - either regarding game strategy or playing time, arrange an appointment to meet privately, away from a
soccer field.)

6. Make positive comments from the sideline. Be encouraging. Young athletes do not need to be reminded constantly about their perceived errors or mistakes. Their coaches will instruct them, either during the game or at half-time, and during practices. You can often see a young player make that extra effort when they hear encouraging words from the
sideline about their hustle.

7. Avoid making any negative comments about players on the other team, this should be simple: we are talking about youngsters, not adults who are being paid to play professionally. I recall being at a rec baseball game some years ago, when parent on one team loudly made comments about errors made by a particular young player on the other team. People on the other side of the diamond were stunned- and angry. Besides being tasteless and classless, these kinds of comments can be hurtful to the young person
involved and to their family as well.

8. Try to keep interaction with parents on the other team as healthy and positive as possible. Who’s kidding whom? You want your child’s team to win. So do they. But that should not make us take leave of our senses, especially our common sense. Be courteous ’till it hurts; avoid the ‘tit for tat’ syndrome.

9. Parents on the ‘other’ team are not the enemy. Neither are the boys or girls on the other team. We should work to check any negative feelings at the door before we hit the pitch.

10. What is the easiest thing to do in the youth sports world? Criticize the referees. Don’t criticize the referees. Oh, there are times when calls are missed, absolutely. And that can, unfortunately, directly affect the outcome of a contest. That said, by and large those who officiate at youth soccer games are hardly over-compensated, and give it an honest - and
often quite competent - effort. At worst, they at least try to be fair and objective.

11. On that note, outbursts from parents on the sideline made toward the referees only signal to our on children on the field that they can blame the refs for anything that goes wrong. Blaming others is not a formula for success in sports.

12. Yelling out comments such as “Good call, ref” or “Thanks ref” may only serve to alienate an official. The ref always assumes they made the proper call, that’s why they made it. Trying to show superficial support because the call went ‘your’ way is simply annoying to the officials, and to anyone within earshot.

13. Walking up and down all game long along the sidelines, following the play, is unnerving to players and totally unnecessary- particularly so if you are trying to yell out instructions to various players, including your own son or daughter. It is likely embarrassing to the player/players involved and simply counterproductive. If you want to coach, obtain your
coaching certification and then apply for a job.

14. We all feel things and are apt to be tempted to say things in the ‘heat of the moment’. But we don’t excuse athletes for doing inappropriate things in the ‘heat of the moment’ (there are penalties, suspensions, etc.) so we should apply similar standards to our own sideline behavior. Quickly check yourself and ask: Will I be proud of what I am about to say or do when I reflect on it tomorrow?

15. The parking lot is not the time to ‘fan the flames’. Whether it is a coach’s decision, a referee’s call, a comment that was made, let it go. Don’t harass the coach, or an official, or a parent on the other team after the game is over. Go home, relax, and unwind. Talk positively with your child. The ride home is sometimes as important as the game itself.
Make that time a good memory for your son or daughter by discussing as many positives as you can about him/her, her coach, her teammates, etc.

Lorain City Soccer Association
Minutes for 8/24/06 meeting

In Attendance Read the rest of this entry »

We have created a map of the fields at Longfellow park:

Please make sure that the parents know to park in the parking lots so as to avoid any inconvenience for the residents surrounding the park.