Tullahoma Soccer

If you’re gonna have a blog you have to update it occasionally.

Okay, I’ll either do better or take it down. Stay tuned…

I am getting several questions and some of the Board folks are getting the same questions, so I decided to post these here. Some of these will be incorporated into the FAQs on the main www site later.

Why is TSA coed?

We made the decision to go coed for several reasons. One is league size. This Fall if we were not coed the U6 girls would have 4 teams, U8G - 5, U10G - 3, U12G - 1. The girls would get real bored playing just each other and the U12s wouldn’t be playing at all. We all play on Saturdays now to avoid the time change issues so scheduling overall is easier by being coed. Also, we have seen from our experience that the girls do just fine, and in fact are better at moving the ball around and playing as a team. The boys are learning this from the girls, making them all better players.

Why isn’t the schedule out yet?

The schedule is about to be published. Version 0.1 is out to some folks to be checked now. We have to coordinate all the different ages, check with CCSL on interplaying teams, verify the ref count is reasonable, make sure coaches with different age group teams are taken care of, verify field assignments, make sure traveling teams (U12, U16) are equitable with travel, and a few other things. It isn’t quite as simple as it looks. It should be posted this week.

Does my team have to participate in the U6/U8 Academy?

No, but if you choose not to you also don’t get to practice at JLRA or RGSC. There are other places available. Before you go your own way with your team you really need to discuss it with Lenore, Sandy, me, or our Director of Coaching once they are in place. If you have been coaching a while (4+ years), have at least an “E” license, and are confident in your ability to plan, organize, and run an effective practice then we might okay it. We are more likely to ask you to step in and help our lead coaches in working with the less experienced coaches. As the season goes on you will get more freedom to work on what you think is important to your team within the Academy structure, but especially now, as we are learning how to do this too, we strongly encourage ALL U8 & U6 teams to participate. If you think there are things that could be done better, please talk to your lead coaches to give them feedback and offer a hand. They have never done this before either and could use the help.  As a parent the best thing you could do is to be sure your player is there on time, ready to practice with proper equipment, a ball, and water. Watch what goes on to learn techniques, not just the skill being taught, but the progression in how it is being taught. Play in the yard at home during the week to reinforce what is being taught and be ready with lots of positive encouragement for your child! I am certain that this approach is what is best for our youngest players and look forward watching it evolve over the coming weeks.

Why are the fees so high?

Are we really that high compared to the other local sports? $10 to state for registration (insurance, training, administration); $16 for uniforms; $20 ref fees; $14 fields/overhead/local reg fees. This is rounded a bit, but it’s close. We can drop the uniforms to $12 by getting only a t-shirt and socks, but when we ask we are told that it’s worth $4 extra to get the nice uniforms (shirt, shorts, & socks). The refs are a bit underpaid compared to the surrounding areas, but we also use them in select games and help them get involved in TSSAA games when they are ready so they can make more money. It’s another method we use to develop participation in soccer, even without them being directly on a team. We also used to get sponsorships for fields that covered major field expenses (goals, paint, etc) but that is no longer available. We are going to have to find a new way to recognize business sponsors to recover that portion that subsidized the field work in the past. Any ideas here are welcomed! Overall, we think we present an excellent value for your soccer fees.

Feel free to forward along any other questions. We’ll add them to the list because if you are curious, someone else probably is too.

Enjoy the game!

Bob

Welcome to the President’s blog for Tullahoma Soccer Association. Eventually someone else will be taking over, so I’m using this forum to document what we do to keep TSA running. This will somehow be turned into a rudimentary operations manual so as us “old timers” roll out the new folks won’t have to repeat our mistakes.

Oh, and blogging is new for me too. I’ll be changing this around too as we go. To contact any board member feel free to hit the home page and look up our contact info on the “contacts” page.

Enjoy the game!

Bob