Lorain City Soccer Association
Minutes from 6/26/06 meeting

In Attendance: Scott Wood, Steve Heider, John Jovanovski, Stacey Provenza, Johnna Wood, Tammy Dull, Angie Heider, Mark Ambrosio, Tami Wysocki, Matt Goodson, Calvin Jones, Kathy Serfozo, Robert Sanchez, Patti Tillman, Christine Shuster, Kirk Seekins

Old Business:
(Soccer Basics Clinic - $10.00 per session, everyone is welcome. If we are unable to bring in outside coaches, the cost will be $5.00. Players pay & register each day they attend.
Dates: 6/28, 6/30, 7/12, 7/14 from 6:30-7:30pm. If the participation is good, 4 additional dates will be 7/25, 7/27, 8/1, 8/3 from 6-7pm & 7-8pm. These two times will be offered if we have an abundance of kids.)
Steve advised that the first 4 clinics will probably be ran by him and John J. only; therefore, the cost would be $5.00 per player. We should have professional coach(s) available for the last 4 sessions, which would make the cost $10..00 per player to cover the cost of the coach and field maintanence. Johnna will write the 8 dates & times on blue flyers and have available to pass out at each session.

Coaches clinic will be in August, dates have not been set yet. Robert mentioned having rules and regulations addressed at this clinic.

Christine mentioned we are in need of coaches at the U6 & U7 level.

Uniforms – Tammy priced 4 companies for uniforms and was still waiting on other catalogs to arrive. Even though using a local company was more per uniform set, everyone agreed it was better to keep the business local. Besides, there are freight costs to ship uniforms from California also. John made the motion to use Unico, in Westlake, for our new uniforms. At this time we will outfit new teams, or existing teams without grey uniforms, but buy old uniform shirts for new kids being added to existing teams from Zeeni, in California. This is who did our uniforms previously. Scott seconded this motion. Even though Unico’s cost is $27.00 per uniform set, we will still sell them for $25.00 because we put this price on the yellow open registration flyers that were distributed in May. If we order at least 201 sets, the cost goes down to $24.50.
Johnna mentioned getting prices for hoodies, t-shirts, etc. that the league could sell to raise money, which would offset any loss on the uniforms.

501 C3 status – Johnna advised that a message was left at his office on Friday, 6/23. If we don’t have this status, Alan will file the paper work for free. Johnna just received Lorain City Soccer’s taxpayer ID number today and will call Alan with this info. to hopefully speed up the process. Also advised that Knights of Columbus is being held for us on 11/4/06 for a cost of $200.00 for a possible Night at the Races or Spaghetti dinner & raffle.
Steve explained that getting our fields up to par would cost approximately $2,000.00 per field. However, Longfellow is not an official soccer park to be used only by us so we really shouldn’t invest that kind of money in something that doesn’t belong to Lorain City Soccer. Therefore, Steve is in contact with council members in order to come up with a remedy to this problem. In the meantime, we have to show that we are financially sound and capable of maintaining our own fields. Also advised that our league is self-governed, but we are seeking to get affiliated with OYSAN again. Steve is also interested in getting corporate sponsorship and has been in contact with someone who is willing to help us out. This, as well as a major fundraiser, such as spaghetti dinner, will really help out our league.

Future Meetings – Kathy requested a set date & time per month for the meetings so that it can be put on the calendar in advance. An e-mail reminder was also requested. It was decided that meetings would be the 3rd week each month, but were unable to say what day because Scott and Steve work a rotating shift on the same day at Lorain Fire Dept. At this point, future meetings are still undecided.

New Business:
Report from County Rep.(John) - Next County Soccer meeting is July 6th. Everyone is welcome. General elections will be on this date in Oberlin. Team commitments due on this date also. The county no longer has a league manager, but a scheduler which is a paid position. As of today, Lorain City Soccer owes the county $53.00. We will owe the county more once our county teams are registered. We pay $125 for U12-U14, $105 for U9-U11, and $90 for U8.
Most county games will be played on Saturdays in the afternoon. If coaches need to reschedule games avoid this time, as well as Tuesday and Thursday.
There is a referee course coming up in August. Referee fees are going up approximately $4 per age group.

Report from AASL Rep.(John) - Registration will be completed online now. Fill out application and the AASL league will upload it. Rosters are due to them around 7/24. There is an AASL tournament coming up.
It has been confirmed that you must play soccer in the league of the city you live in. It does not matter where you go to school. AASL follows and enforces this rule. If we are lacking a league, a child may play for a bordering community only. Each community is only allowed a max. of 3 kids from other bordering communities per team. Bordering communities can also work together to combine kids in order to create the needed team.

Treasurer’s Report- Currently we have approximately $13,000.00 in account. There was also an additional deposit made last week of approximately $700.00. Attached is the copy of a transaction sheet from 4/05 through 1/06. Future expenses are approximately $500-600.00 for paint, field striping, office supplies. Approximately $1500.00 will go to the county for 15 teams. Scott requested a month by month report be available and given to all in attendance at the next meeting.

Coaches/player development – Steve’s philosophy is that we should be developing technically skilled soccer players. This association should train players & get technical responsibility away from coaches. Clinics will help develop the children’s soccer skills.
Kathy mentioned concern about us educating parents and kids at a young age and teaching them the basics. Steve recommended that coaches have a meeting at the beginning of the season with parents to set expectations and get them to commit to practices and games. He said these things will be addressed at our coaches clinic in August.

Team selection & rostering – Steve is not in favor of kids playing up or of all girls teams unless they are all the same age. Safety becomes a factor. Kids need to play at their correct age level. The only kids who should play up are kids who are big for their age, have extreme quickness or technical ability. Coaches need to work with this league on this issue.

Open Discussion:
Didn’t have time today. The meeting was over two hours because it has been long over due.