Lorain City Soccer Association

We have setup a new website for information regarding the soccer school:

http://www.loraincitysoccer.org/school

Orientation & Final Registration for the Soccer School will be on Thursday, Aug. 23th at 6pm.

The season will begin on Monday, Aug. 27th with our first Training Session at 6pm.

All events and training will be held at Longfellow Park.

Please don’t park on Michigan Ave. use the school parking lot!!

   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

25 July 2006

To: All Players, Parents, Coaches and Members

From: Steven Heider, President, Lorain City Soccer Association
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