The best advice I can offer to you is to never get attached to a name before your team hears it. The worst thing is when kids show up to a practice and the coach proudly announces the new team name to lackluster enthusiasm. The best way to ensure you never get this response: Let your [...]
Team Fund AYSO has a policy against collecting pooled funds as there have been cases of abuse. So you'll just need to do your best to get reinbursed for shared expenses. I recommend communicating upfront what that will be and collecting any banner funds right away. Typical expenses include: $15 per family to cover two parties and the occasional [...]
As part of our ideal parents communication plan this a great example of an email to parents after the first couple practices to keep them up to date on how things are going. It doesn’t have to be long, just something that allows parents a bit of inspection into how you think things are going in [...]
As part of an amazing team communication plan there are a few good options for setting up a team website for communications. Like anything else there are pros and cons with any option. For the purposes of this article, we’re assuming you need the basics of a calendar, availability tracker, and photo sharing. All of the [...]
Yet another installment in our team communication plan: After a great season (aren’t they all!) I like to send out an informal review from a coaching perspective. This is your time to lay out their progress according to the objectives you set for the season. The great thing is that you have been setting great objectives [...]
As part of our team communications plan: Most coaches default to only getting their team together at the last practice celebration. I highly recommend you consider adding a couple other informal touch points along the way. If you as a coach perform flawlessly in your normal duties, you’ve given some kids (and your own) a great [...]
Continuing with our team communication plan: After your 3rd or 4th game your players will have hopefully made good progress towards your initial tactical/technical goals for the season. Now might be the time to highlight the progress the team has made and what new goals you’ll be working on for the next set of practices. The [...]
The initial game is the first time many (most?) of the parents will take an active interest in their kid’s soccer season. When little Suzie or Jonny are on the field and either doing above average or below average is when parents’ start immediately judging your coaching abilities. They may even have completely ignored all your [...]
Continuing our team communications cadence: This would be a great example of an email to send parents right before your first practice. Adapt as you see fit depending on age group and your personal objectives. If you’re struggling to come up with your own objective, check out this condensed list of objectives by age group which [...]
Coaches - Feel free to point your team parent here. This is just a short list of ideas I’ve seen that worked well and weren’t expensive at all: A card signed by every player on the team. Do encourage the players to write a short phrase or (if too young) ask them and write it for [...]