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GREAT AMERICAN BASKETBALL LEAGUE

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7

Mar, 2016

Season's Start

Hello Team!

Pride Soccer Club has asked me to be the head coach this season for our team. I’m looking forward to getting to know your kids and having a good time learning and playing soccer.

As far as a brief introduction:
I am Isaac’s dad and I’m so pleased that he has grown to love playing soccer. I have played this amazing sport almost all of my life. It is a severe problem… I mean passion of mine even as an adult. I continue to play in recreation leagues as much as I can and would waste my life away watching games if we had cable (my wife’s wise foresight has kept this away from our home). I played very competitively in my young adulthood and it has been all downhill from there. I have coached Isaac’s YMCA team for a few seasons and his growing interest has led us to start with Pride this season. I am a physician by trade and Isaac is our oldest of 4 kids. So if I am ever a little late to something those are the reasons.

As far as my coaching philosophy:
At this age my primary goal is for the players to really enjoy themselves. If they come back for another season of their own choice then I feel I have done my job. I am hoping that the kids come away from games less concerned about the score and more concerned with their level of enjoyment and improvement. For better or worse, I will ask parents to at least support this view, if not embrace it. As the players get older winning/losing and competition will become more and more important naturally. So, I will of course, encourage players to play hard, to give it their best, and even to score goals, but I will do my best to not concentrate on the score or who won/lost. I will try to evaluate kids for all of the positive things that they are doing right above scoring. For those of us that live vicariously through our kids this will be a challenge.

My secondary goal will be for the kids to improve basic skills and learn the game. I have no idea where each player is starting from and we will try to use the first 1-2 practices to gauge this. This first part of practice will be spent working on basic skills, the second half for playing to put into practice the things learned. As the kids improve we will try to expand to more complex concepts of team play, positioning, possession, etc in practice and games. Thus, I will painfully try to help kids for focus on correctness of technique rather than speed/power/”impressiveness”. Developmentally, “bunch ball” is common at this age and we don’t necessarily need to fight against it too hard, but try to help them understand that there is a more efficient way of playing as a team. I also feel it is important to not be too rigid when teaching positioning either as it may stifle creativity and learning. Practice at home is encouraged and if I can help with showing you things to work on at home I would be glad to do so. Practice will run exactly 1 hr. I’ve found that this age can’t tolerate any more than that. I will typically try to stay for a little bit afterwards for anyone that would like more individualized attention if there is any interest.

Lastly- I highly encourage parental involvement. Don’t be shy! Get involved as much as you can with practice and games. Don’t let inexperience be a barrier. Also if you have specific things that you want your child to accomplish this season please let me know and we will work on it.

Things I know about myself:
I am all too aware that sustained attention for this age group is not going to be a strong point. I will do my best to limit standing in lines, not having their own ball, and to make drills be interesting but it will still be difficult to keep the kids present. To keep my own sanity I will ask that parents help with their own kids in this regard. If someone is distracted I’ll call them back to practice, but I can’t do much more than that. I also won’t be able to tolerate wrestling, horse play, etc very well and will allow the individual to continue that away from the others so as not to distract their peers. So if you see your child on the sideline during practice it is because they were distracting others. Of course they are invited back as soon as they are ready to participate/focus again. So I apologize in advance for this.

Sorry for such a long email. My hope is that forward advance of the above information may help things start a little more smoothly.

Practice:
Our first practice will be this Thursday evening, March 10 at 5pm. Sun goes down at 6 so we can’t start any later.

Where: Westcreek Park. Winding Passage Dr, Colorado Springs, CO 80924. https://goo.gl/maps/R4SqXc7Xwk12

What to bring: Shin-guards (a must, no exceptions), water, cleats only if they have them (not required), and a ball (I have not been given any equipment yet and don’t know if/when that will happen). My understanding is that we will be using size 3. However, I have not confirmed that yet so don’t go by a ball until I can tell you for sure what we will be using this season.

We will have a very brief parent meeting for the first 5 minutes or so for introductions, questions, and house-keeping items. If there are any of you that would be willing to take on more “official roles” I will be asking for those then (“Team Mom”/organizer, assistant coaches, etc). Will also go over team communications.

Well that’s all I can think of for now. Looking forward to meeting you all. In the meantime please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Text or email is typically the most effecient way to get ahold of me but please call if that works better for you.

Sincerely,

Bryce Callister
[email protected]
Cell: 412-576-3661

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15030 W. 106th St., Fax: 913-236-9188
Lenexa, Kansas 66215
Phone : 913-236-8833
Email : [email protected]