NASA
Fall 2008 Development Update
New Training Partner
It is 3 years since
NASA last reviewed it’s choice of training partners. Over the Summer NASA carried out a due diligence review of
training partner choices to be sure that our membership is receiving the best
quality and best value for money available to them.
We requested training proposals from three top-level providers, MLS,
NE.Aztecs and MPS.
NASA have selected a new training
partner for the Fall’08 season and beyond.
We will be partnering with Mass Premier Soccer (MPS). Please join us in welcoming MPS to North
Andover. They bring with them some
exciting new ideas which will be incorporated into our program and some new
concepts that will work side by side with our program.
Summer Soccer
This is the second year of Summer
Family Soccer and it has been a big success.
Every week, come rain or shine we have had kids of all ages playing
together and having a lot of fun. It
has been great to see and is a wonderful advertisement for the game. I would like to send a special message of
thanks to Holly Pepler (our U-6 director) and Alan Baginski (NASA parent and
coach) for the fantastic level of support they have provided for the program
this summer. We could not have done it
without them.
Some Helpful Fall’08 Dates
See the NASA web-site “Calendar of Events” for a
more complete calendar
“Introduction to Soccer” night
Great
pre-season training for new & existing U-6 coaches. Pick up some basics on how to be a good
soccer coach for young children. Send an email to development@nasoccer.com to sign-up. A great prelude to the MYSA G coaching
license course (see below).
Dynamic stretching & Nutrition
presentation
This
presentation will be given by ‘One80’ of Wilmington for ALL interested NASA
coaches. Perfect for U-10 coaches and
above. Send an email to development@nasoccer.com o sign-up.
Pre-season coach training
Practical
sessions for U-6, U-8 and U-10 coaches going over the new MPS U-6, U-8 &
U-10 training curriculums for the Fall season.
Practical training session for travel coaches (U-12 & U-14). Watch a NASA travel team being run through a
‘themed’ practice. Followed by a
Q&A session in front of a white board.
MPS suggested that this format might be of more interest to travel
coaches.
Time and venue
TBD. Contact your age group director to
let them know you plan to attend.
MYSA G coaching license course
Wednesday
September 10th, 6PM to 10PM, venue Sargent School (to be
confirmed). This course is a
recommended follow-on to the “Intro to Soccer” night. Please send an email to development@nasoccer.com
if you would like to sign up. NASA pay
all fees for North Andover coaches.
Duration:
4 hours
Materials given to the coach:
MYSA
Zipper Bag containing the MYSA G Manual, US Soccer Under 6/8 and the U10
Assistant Coach series as well as numerous pamphlets the will be helpful.
For Whom:
Novice
coaches, or coaches with little experience of U8 and U10 players.
Course Content:
Ideas
about how to organize practices and game days, lot's of practical activities
and stimulating games for practices, brief demonstration of basic techniques.
MYSA F coaching license course
This is an
8 hour course but is being run in 2 4-hour sessions, venue Sargent School (to
be confirmed).
Tuesday September 23rd, Part-I, 6PM to 10PM
Wednesday October 1st, Part-II, 6PM to 10PM
Please send
an email to development@nasoccer.com
if you would like to sign up. NASA pay
all fees for North Andover coaches.
NOTE:
These dates may need to change
slightly if MYSA indicate that they are unable to support these courses on
these particular days. I’ll keep you
updated via email.
Duration:
8 hours
Materials given to the coach:
MYSA F
Manual and Coaching the Goalkeeper by Tony Waiters, and Basic Guide to Laws of
the Game.
For Whom:
Novice
coaches, or coaches with some experience of U8, U10, or U12 teams
Course Content:
Ideas
about how to organize practices and game days, many games and exercises for
practices, a more thorough demonstration of basic technique, elementary
goalkeeping techniques, some basic tactical ideas.
New U-6 Curriculum
MPS recommended that we add a
curriculum and some coaching support to our U-6 program. Our young children will soak up the
technical content like sponges. It is
presented in an age appropriate manner and the kids will really enjoy learning
about soccer. This season, we will be
following MPS’s own U-6 curriculum. Each
Saturday for all 8 weeks of the U-6 program, two of MPS’s own coaches will meet
with the U-6 coaches and run through the curriculum for that day, 15-20 minutes
before each 9.00AM and 10.30AM time-slot.
The two MPS coaches will also both be circulating around the fields
during each time-slot, introducing themselves and supporting our U-6
coaches. They are VERY good at this
stuff so if you are a U-6 coach, let them take your practice for a few minutes
and watch and learn. Further
information will be available from our fantastic U-6 Director Holly Pepler. The curriculum will be available on the NASA
web-site in coaches corner and on the U-6 page for you to access.
U-8 & U-10 clinics
The overall format of the U-8 and
U-10 soccer season remains unchanged.
One team practice, one clinic session run by MPS and games on
Saturday. MPS feel this is a well
balanced part of our program. This
season we will be following MPS’s own U-8 and U-10 curriculum which are new to
NASA. With a new training partner comes
renewed enthusiasm and some new ideas.
These curriculums will be available on the NASA web-site in coaches
corner for you to access.
MPS School of Excellence program
(SOE) for U-9 & U-10 town players
For the U-9
and U-10 age group, MPS run regional teams.
Our region is the North Shore SOE.
and activities are based out of Lynnfield. There is a single U-9 boys team, a U-10 boys team, a U-9 girls
team and a U-10 girls team. For anyone
interested, MPS will be running practice-based try-outs in early September
(starts 9/3 for boys and 9/8 for girls) for North Andover players. They had try-outs a few months ago but there
are still some slots available on the girls and boys teams. More information will be made available via
email. For more information on the
North Shore SOE please see the following link. http://www.mpsbr.com/soe/northshore.html.
These teams
practice during the week. The U-9 &
U-10 teams play in a jamboree against other SOE teams at the end of the
season. In addition the U-10 teams also
play about 5 games during the season on Sundays against other SOE teams.
MPS School of Excellence program
(SOE) for U-11 & U-12 town players
For the
U-11 and U-12 age group, MPS run regional teams. Our region is the North Shore SOE. and activities are based out of Lynnfield. There is a single U11/U12 boys team
(Bulldogs), a U-11 girls team and a U-12 girls team. For anyone interested, MPS will be running practice-based
try-outs in early September (starts 9/3 for boys and 9/5 for girls) for North
Andover players. They had try-outs a
few months ago but there are still some slots available on the girls and boys
teams. More information will be made
available via email. For more
information on the North Shore SOE please see the following link. http://www.mpsbr.com/soe/northshore.html.
These teams
practice during the week and play on Sundays.
We will be providing NASA U-12 travel coaches with practice info to help
avoid conflicts with their own town practices.
Travel Team Coaching
This season MPS will be engaging
more with our travel teams than in previous seasons. This is an area of improvement that MPS identified for our
program. Historically, NASA have been
very hands-off’ in their support of travel soccer training. This is slowly going to change. The MPS focus this season will be U-12
travel coaches and teams. A total of 36
1.5 hour MPS-led travel team training sessions are available. Our goal is to ensure that the technical
content of their training remains as high as it needs to at this level. NASA will be communicating with it’s U-12
travel coaches to move things forward here.
Travel Team game Analysis
MPS will also be offering a limited
amount of travel team game analysis this Fall’08 season. This season the focus will be the top 3 boys
and girls teams at the U12 age group. In future seasons we will consider expanding to include other
teams in the 12 age group and into U14 age group.
Positional/Functional Skill Clinics for
players U-10 and up
This season, MPS will be offering 8
skills clinics that focus on the core playing positions on the soccer field. These clinics will take place at the
Sharpners Pond complex and will run on Sunday mornings for an hour, exact times
to be confirmed. You will be notified
via email of any changes in dates and venue.
Please send an email to development@nasoccer.com to sign up
for any of these clinics. More info to
come via email.
Tournaments
MPS run an ‘8 Vs 8’ soccer tournament
at Halloween for U-9, U-10, U-11 & U-12 at the Citizen Bank Fields in
Lancaster called ‘Soccerween’. It is
based around the Halloween theme and all players are encouraged to come in
costume. Three games are guaranteed
with a possible two to three more based on results. MPS hand out individual fair play awards, team awards for most
attractive soccer and also prizes for the best costumes. Boys play Oct 27th and girls play
Oct 28th. The cost is $400.00 per team. To register your team or if you have questions, please contact
Lee Billiard of MPS (lbilliard@mpsbr.com,
781-891-6900, ext 18).
There are multiple opportunities for
Labor Day Tournaments. A list of tournaments is available from MYSA at
(www.mayouthsoccer.org). Tournaments tend to fill up early so check with your
team and register soon. Remember that
since last year, North Andover Columbus Day tournament is open to U-10 teams
now.
Pride Soccer Program
NASA’s Pride program will run for
it’s third season this Fall’08 and we are looking forward to getting
started. Last season was a huge success and we closed out the season with
an ice cream social at Smolak Farms. A lot of fun was had by all.
Check out the photos on the NASA web-site (www.nasoccer.com).
NASA board members and NASA
parents will partner with volunteer High School athletes and volunteer soccer
players from our U-14 travel program to continue to bring the fun sport of
soccer to the special needs children in our area. The program will focus
on soccer activities and games that promote health and positive self-esteem.
The mission of this program is to
bring the opportunity of learning and playing soccer to any boy or girl ages 6
to 14, who has Down Syndrome, Autism or Cerebral Palsy. The players will be
taught the fundamentals of the game in a fun, structured and safe environment.
If you would like to know more
about the program or would like to volunteer to assist, please contact Philip
Tustin at development@nasoccer.com.
If you would like to register a child for this program, go to the NASA web-site
as www.nasoccer.com, click on ‘NASA Fall
2008 Registration’, then click on the link provided to take you to registration
page and then select the current “Intown” program. You will see North Andover
Pride listed as a registration option.
As before, the program will run
for 7 weeks at Gallagher fields in North Andover and the schedule is as
follows. In the final week we will have a non-soccer get-together of some
kind. Details TBD. All participants and volunteers for the Pride
program will be notified of any changes to the schedule via email. We
will be in regular touch via email in the run up to the start of the season.
PRIDE FALL 2008 SCHEDULE
Week#1
Saturday Sept 13th @ Gallagher fields,
3.00PM – 4.00PM
Week #2
Saturday Sept 20th @ Gallagher fields,
3.00PM – 4.00PM
Week#3
Saturday Sept 27th @ Gallagher fields,
3.00PM – 4.00PM
Week#4
Saturday Oct 4th @ Gallagher
fields, 3.00PM – 4.00PM
COLUMBUS DAY WEEKEND
Saturday Oct 11th, NO PRIDE PROGRAM
Week#5
Saturday Oct 18th @ Gallagher fields,
3.00PM – 4.00PM
Week#6
Saturday Oct 25th @ Gallagher fields, 3.00PM –
4.00PM
Week#7
Saturday Nov 1st @ Gallagher fields,
3.00PM – 4.00PM
Week#8
Saturday Nov 8th FUN DAY (details to be
announced)