NASL  NEWSLETTER

February 7th, 2003
 

"The solution to adult problems tomorrow depends on large measure upon how our children grow up today."  Margaret Mead

       This is the 48th issue distributed to the new NASL list. The previous newsletters are now on-line at http://www.nasl.com/current_news.htm 

 
Articles in this week's newsletter:
  1. nasl is now NASL.com
  2. Upcoming Soccer Calendar - lots of new dates added.
  3. Alabama High School Top Ten Power Rankings
  4. The Perfect Soccer Cigar
  5. Need updated information on 2003 Soccer Camps
  6. ASA 2003 Membership Survey
  7. Just 4 Kicks 5v5 Youth Tournament (with guest WUSA Atlanta Beat) - February 14-16
  8. Coaching Articles, Tips and Drills
  9. Referee Rates for Spring 2003
  10. Fastest Hat Trick Ever
  11. The Logistics of Small-Sided Games by Tom Turner
  12. Growing Referees
  13. Spring Team Information
  14. New Team
  15. Soccer fan incident prompts reviews
  16. Soccer is a matter of Life or Death?
  17. Aly Wagner comes of age
  18. Directions to Fields - Updated for 2003 School Season
nasl is now NASL.com

      The NASL website will no longer be reachable at http://www.nasl-rcit.com
      We now have a new easier to remember web address of www.nasl.com so please bookmark the new address.  Thanks.
 
Soccer Calendar - Dates to Remember

   More information on all events below is available at the NASL website.
 
  • Division III and Division IV players may be officially rostered to Spring teams as of February 1, 2003
  • NASL first Spring "Play" Date - the first weekend that games can be played is February 8th.
  • United States Men's National Team vs. Argentina at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Fla., at 10:55 a.m. CT live on ESPN2, Telemundo
  • ASA State League Scheduling Meeting - February 8th, 2003 at Soccer Blast on Hwy 280. (Birmingham) in the meeting room.
    Division I and II Girls will meet at 10:00 AM
    Division I and II Boys will meet at 1:00 PM
    Click here for more information.
  • Boys ODP -February 9th - '88 Boys at 10 AM Montgomery YMCA fields - Morning training and 2PM match
  • NASOA Referee meeting will be held at Whitesburg Middle School on February 10th. The February 17th and February 24th meetings need to be moved due to a holiday and parent/teacher conferences for the Huntsville City Schools. Meeting location for the 17th and 24th is TBD.
  • Just4Kicks Youth Soccer Tournament - Feb 14-16, 2003
  • Lakeshore Shootout High School Tournaments - Birmingham
    February 14th & 15th, 2003 (Boys)
    February 21st & 22nd, 2003 (Girls)
    Teams included are John Carroll, Indian Springs, Montgomery Academy, Huntsville, Randolph, Vestavia, Shades Valley, UMS-Wright, McGill-Toolen, Cullman, Oak Mountain, Hewitt-Trussville, Hoover, Fairhope, Decatur, Spain Park, Ft. Payne, Bayside Academy; Minor, Pleasant Grove, Trinity, Holy Spirit, Thompson, Central Tuscaloosa, Auburn, Grissom, Bob Jones, Gadsden, Pleasant Grove, Hillcrest, Sparkman, and Altamont.
  • Submission of Registration forms and fees due in AYSA office. These must be true, accurate number of new member registrations and fees. Member cards will be issued to clubs for Division III and Division IV members once forms and fees are submitted. - February 15, 2003
  • U.S. Women's National Team vs. Iceland in Charleston, S.C. - Sunday, February 16, at Blackbaud Stadium.
  • Boys ODP - February 23rd - '90 Boys at 12noon to 5 pm at Birmingham Fields TBA
  • Boys ODP - February 23rd - '86 Boys at 12noon to 5pm at
    Birmingham Fields TBA
  • USSF "C" License - February 24th - March 3rd, 2003 in Birmingham - This course has been cancelled.
  • Statewide Division III and Division IV League play may begin - March 1, 2003
  • North Alabama Middle School Tournament - March 4th, 6th and 8th, 2003 - Point Mallard Soccer Complex - Decatur, Alabama
  • HHS JV Super Cup - Huntsville High School will be holding a JV Tournament on March 14-15, 2003 at the John Hunt Soccer Complex. Boys teams from Alabama and Tennessee and Girls teams from Birmingham, Huntsville, Madison and Ft Payne have already signed up. You may contact Jim Saunders  jim.saunders@gti-us.com  256-533-3466 for more info.
  • ASA State Spring League Begins - March 15th, 2003
  • Valley Futbol Club Skills Training Clinics - Contact Dave Ghoja at 464-3652 or dghoja@knology.net
  • ASA State Board Meeting - March 16th - The focus will be on small sided soccer and is open to the ASA Membership.
  • AHSAA North South All-Star Soccer Game deadline for nominations is March 28th. Please tell your high school coach. Use AHSAA Form #37.
  • Huntsville Spring Classic Soccer Tournament (4th Annual) - April 12-13, 2003 - Huntsville, AL - U9 thru U14 Boys & Girls *U9 & U10 will play 8v8.
  • AHSAA High School Soccer Championships - May 9th and 10th, 2003 at John Hunt Complex in Huntsville.
  • Final date for Statewide Division III and Division IV League play - May 10, 2003
  • "Spring" Tide American Festival - May 17, 2003
  • USA Women's national Team vs. Canada - Birmingham's Legion Field - May 17, 2003 (Date is Tentative at this time)
  • Alabama Soccer Association Annual General Membership Meeting - May 17, 2003
  • ASA State Spring League Ends - May 18, 2003
  • Tryouts for the Fall 2003 Season can begin May 27th and may run through June 15th, 2003.
  • Region III Youth Regional Championships - Greensboro, N.C. - June 26th - July 1st, 2003
  • Alabama Sports Festival - Huntsville - June 26th - 29th, 2003 - Contact Darrell Harris (256) 773-0845 or Sheri & Randall Farley (205) 631-9165
  • Region III ODP Girls Camps - Tuscaloosa, Alabama
    1984/85 girls - July 3-8 and holdovers - July 9-11
    1987/88 girls - July 10-15 and holdovers - July 16-18
    1989 girls - July 17-22 and holdovers, July 23-25
  • Region III ODP Boys Camps - Tuscaloosa, Alabama
    1/988/89 boys - July 5-10
    1987 boys and holdovers - July 12-17
    1986 boys are going to a tournament, not camp in our region.
  • Division I Qualifying Tournament - Montgomery - August 9-10th, 2003 - All teams who want to play in Division I have to qualify - even 2002 State Champions.
  • ASA State League Fall Scheduling Meeting - August 16/17th, 2003
  • Fall League Begins - September 6th, 2003
  • Fall League Ends - October 26th, 2003
  • Governor's Cup - Montgomery - October 25-26, 2003
  • Snicker's Cup - Huntsville - November 1-2, 2003
  • D II Tournament - Location TBA - November 8-9, 2003
  • Adult State Cup - Mobile - November 15-16, 2003
  • NIRSA Sports Club National Championship - Nov 20-22, 2003 Tuscaloosa
     

 

ALABAMA POWER RANKINGS
NEW! - Pre-season Top Ten High Schools for Spring 2003

 
       Here they are - the pre-season Top Ten rankings for the high school season.  The first games are just a week away, but at this time every team is still undefeated and in first place. I guess you could also say that they're also actually tied for last place, but I'm an optimist. Differing opinions are welcome - email me at dsports@hiwaay.net with your's.
       These rankings are also published in Southern Soccer Scene - the premier magazine about soccer in the South. You can visit Southern Soccer Scene's Website at http://www.southernsoccerscene.com/
       If you would like to order Southern Soccer Scene Magazine send an e-mail request with your home address to Alabama@southernsoccerscene.com or subscribe at Southern Soccer Scene's Website at http://www.southernsoccerscene.com/
 

Boys 6A

  1. McGill-Toolen

  2. Grissom

  3. Bob Jones

  4. Shades Valley

  5. John Carroll

  6. Vestavia Hills

  7. Hoover

  8. Daphne

  9. Mountain Brook

  10. Austin

    11.

Boys 5A

  1. Cullman

  2. Homewood

  3. Huntsville

  4. Athens

  5. Briarwood  Christian

  6. Bradshaw

    7.

  7. Fairhope

    8.

    9. Fort Payne

  9. St. Paul's Episcopal

  10. Gadsden

Boys 4A-1A

  1. Randolph School

  2. Altamont

  3. Jacksonville

  4. Trinity Presbyterian

  5. Indian Springs

  6. Mars Hill Bible

  7. Guntersville

  8. Montgomery Academy

  9. Catholic (Huntsville)

  10. Bayside Academy

Girls 6A

  1. Oak Mountain

  2. Central (Tuscaloosa)

  3. Grissom

  4. Mountain Brook

  5. Bob Jones

  6. Vestavia Hills

  7. John Carroll

  8. Hoover

  9. McGill-Toolen

  10. Northview

Girls 5A

  1. Briarwood Christian

  2. Huntsville

  3. Fort Payne

  4. Fairhope

  5. Homewood

  6. Bradshaw

  7. Lee-Huntsville

  8. St. Paul's Episcopal

  9. Cullman

  10. Athens

Girls 4A-1A

  1. Trinity Presbyterian

  2. Montgomery Academy

  3. Randolph

  4. East Limestone

  5. Indian Springs

  6. UMS-Wright

  7. Guntersville

  8. Mars Hill

  9. Gulf Shores

  10. Bayside Academy
The Perfect Soccer Cigar

     I read that in Barcelona, Spain you can now buy a large cigar that lasts for 90 minutes, the length of a soccer match, when smoked normally. So, you can determine the approximate time left in the match by seeing how much of your cigar is left. The only condition is that you stop smoking at half and during any game stoppages.
     With all we know about cancer and smoking it seems to me that what the world really needs is a good five cents wristwatch. - Ken Gamble
 
Need updated information on 2003 Soccer Camps
      I am in the process of updating the website information on soccer camps.  If you are involved with a soccer camp please e-mail your updated information for 2003 to dsports@hiwaay.net.
       http://www.nasl.com/camps.htm
 
ASA 2003 Membership Survey

       Let the Alabama Soccer Association membership and leaders know how you think ASA performed in 2002.  We have the Membership Survey on-line.  Please fill it out and mail in.
A survey form is available at
http://wwwnasl.com/forms/ASA2003MembershipSurvey.pdf
 
Just 4 Kicks 5v5 Youth Tournament (with guest WUSA Atlanta Beat) - February 14-16

Inaugural 5v5 Youth Tournament

WITH SPECIAL GUESTS 


The ATLANTA BEAT
FEBRUARY 14TH, 15TH AND 16TH, 2003 

  • Boys and Girls

  • U-9 to U-14

  • Limited to 66 teams

  • 3 games per team guaranteed

  • Registration fee:  $275.00 per team.

  • Maximum 9 person roster.

  • Contact Ricky Crawford 256-534-4939 or 256-990-1134

  • e-mail rickydc@mindspring.com

       Opening ceremonies will begin Friday 14th at 5p.m. with live music, food and other activities. Games will start Saturday 15th at 7a.m.. Atlanta Beat will conduct a mini camp on Friday 14th 2003 from 7p.m. till 10 p.m. The cost per child is $55.00. There are only 80 spots for this camp so be quick to register. Dinner with team will be auctioned off prior to start of the tournament.

 Register on-line @ www.just4kicks.info

Coaching Articles, Tips and Drills

        I have added a large number of articles on every possible soccer coaching subject to the NASL website. Just last week I added 2500 new pages.  If you were to read a page a minute it would take 40 hours of reading.  These are zipped for quick downloading.  The subjects added last week include: 1v2 Attackers, 1v2 Defenders, Attention Deficit Disorder, Anti-Select, Attacking, Both Defense and Offense, Coaching Licenses, Conditioning, Warm-ups, Dribbling, Flat Back Defense, Formations, General Soccer Information, Glossary, Soccer Humor, Indoor Soccer, Injuries, Nutrition, Keeper, Licensing, Motivation, Offside, Parents, Passing, Penalty Kicks, Quotes, Receiving, Refereeing, Resources, Scouting, Set Pieces, Team Defense, Tournaments, and Tryouts.
       If you're interested in coaching, check back often as I have thousand of more soccer coaching articles that will be added in the next few months - many which were written by the very best coaches in the soccer world and who have given us permission to post them on the NASL website.
http://www.nasl.com/drills.htm
 
Referee Rates for Spring 2003

      The newest pay rates for referees for the Spring 2003 season are available on-line at  http://www.nasl.com/ref/referee_rates.htm
 
Fastest Hat Trick Ever

     During the Japan vs. Brunei match on February 16th, 2000 the Japanese player Masashi Nakayama scored a pure hat trick in the first three minutes and 15 seconds. Later in the game teammate, Naohiro Takahara, also added his own hat trick - but he needed 12 minutes.
The Logistics of Small-Sided Games by Tom Turner

     As you may know from attending the ASA Planning Meeting in January, Alabama (as well as all of the states of Region III) is considering changes that will affect the primary manner in which small-sided soccer is instituted at the local level.  For more information please read the "Position Statement – Region III’s Best Opportunity for Region Wide Expansion of Soccer".
The position statement is available at http://www.nasl.com/forms/PositionStatementsOct02forRegionIII.pdf 
     Alabama State DOC Lance Williams has provided an article on the subject by Tom Turner called "The Logistics of Small-Sided Games". The first part of the article is below.  There is a link at the bottom to download the entire article.    

      The small-sided games movement has evolved worldwide in response to the steady demise of street soccer. As a phenomenon, street soccer remains strong in only Latin America, Africa, and in some parts of the Middle and Far East. In street soccer cultures, children as young as five can be found playing with their peers and older “friends” in ever-varying configurations of games. Two or three players are enough to start the days’ play and, on occasion, the numbers may swell to resemble small mob scenes. Goals are made from whatever is available and play is always between two goals, the ball may be nothing more than a bundle of rags, there are no scrimmage vests, no referees, and no coaches. Rule disputes are settled by the players, and the outcome of games is often decided by family meal times, evening curfews, the availability of light, or some agreed upon number, such as “ten halftime-twenty winner.” The severity of the bug bites in the summer was, as I remember, reason to keep moving, not reason to quit! During school days, arriving early meant more opportunities to play in smaller-sided games before the sleepyheads arrived, and the lunch hour game was interrupted only long enough to gobble down food before resuming play.
      In the 1980’s, with their street soccer cultures disappearing or already extinct, progressive Western soccer federations turned to small-sided games in an attempt to compensate for the loss of skillful, imaginative players. Given the sheer volume of touches experienced over time in street soccer play, the number of players on the field was never an issue. But when “soccer time” became organized and reduced to only two or three hours each week, it became necessary to maximize ball contacts by reducing the number of players competing for possession. In soccer, dribbling skills are essential, and the creative dribbler was, and remains, the most prized talent.
      Young children come into organized soccer at the suggestion or urging of their parents, and “play” to a five or six year-old is not complicated by the adult concept of “competition.” Sadly, while all parents want their child to have a positive experience in sport, for many, the specter of “win now” has become more important than the process of learning and having fun. For many very good reasons beyond the scope of this piece, children below the age of eight should not be placed in competitive situations in which the outcome influences their enjoyment and participation, and their right to learn and dream. For these reasons, this article suggests ways to restructure community youth soccer programs.
 
     The entire article in MS Word form can be downloaded at http://www.nasl.com/articles/logistics_of_small_sides_tom_turner.doc
 
Growing Referees
 

     NASL and AYSA spend a lot of our time trying to spur the growth of soccer in outlying rural areas of Alabama.  We often overlook an important part of that growth - new USSF referees.  New teams need local referees in order to host teams on their own fields. And sadly most of the more rural areas have few refs available.  And referees are seldom willing to travel long distances at their own expense in order to referee games when there are plenty of games available in their own backyard.  So it is imperative for rural area teams to encourage parents and rec soccer referees to take the test to become certified.
    Growth of soccer and growth of referees go hand in hand.
 
Spring Team Information:

        If your North Alabama Soccer League affiliated team is playing this spring (NASL, Rec-Plus, State, Premier, etc.) please check the list of teams and team information on-line at http://www.nasl.com/teams.htm and confirm that the contact name(s) and information are correct and that your team is highlighted. The teams participating this spring should be highlighted.
      Although I took down the information at the scheduling meetings on Monday and Tuesday some of it was unclear as to who was the coach and who was the manager and some information was incomplete or illegible. Please look it over and send corrections to me at dsports@hiwaay.net 
 
New Team:

      Scottsboro, Alabama will be fielding a U12 girls' team this spring for the first time ever and are starting from scratch. The NAU Scottsbopro Wildcates U12G team has a set of gold colored team uniforms but could use a second set and are willing to take an old set of uniforms (any colors) if any club or team has any they are no longer using.
      It is very important that we help nurture the clubs and teams in the outlying areas of North Alabama. In addition to jerseys they can use goal keeper jerseys, balls, etc - any of the equipment you need when you start a new club. Any help would be appreciated. Contact Bruce Hoge bhoge@scottsboro.org  or 256-259-5805, 259-7868, 259-1116.
Soccer fan incident prompts reviews
By Laurie Cason
Times-Union sports writer


They're just games.

     Yet there are an increasing number of stories nationally about parents who treat them as much more.
     High schools locally have had little experience with acts of parental rage
at athletic events and, as a result, few real guidelines exist to help the
schools deal with what can be a volatile situation.
     Now, however, a late January incident at Orange Park High School has many area schools taking a closer look at what they would do if a parent crossed that line on their own turf. In the Orange Park incident, Tim Enright
entered the soccer field to check on his son, who had been injured in a
skirmish for the ball. Angry that a more severe penalty was not levied on
the opposing player, Enright confronted the referee.
     The game between two nationally ranked teams -- Orange Park was No.3 and Nease No.22 -- was ended with 13:25 remaining in the second half. Nease was credited with the 2-0 win, and Enright was banned from attending all extracurricular activities involving Orange Park for at least one year and
possibly through his son's graduation.
     "When you turn your kids loose to play sports, you have to kind of divorce yourself from that situation," Fletcher girls soccer coach Mike Levine said. "Our society today is way too emotionally tied into what's happening on the field. Ultimately, it's still a game, but people lose sight of that."
     Levine, who has coached soccer at the recreational, club and high school levels since 1984, can't recall when another game was ended prematurely as a result of a parent entering the field of play. Neither can coach Scott Marabell, who has headed the baseball program at Wolfson for nine years, nor Dan Disch, the 15-year veteran football coach at White.
     Mandarin football coach Richard Burnoski attributes the infrequency of such incidents to the lessening role parents play in their children's athletics
activities at the high school level.
     "Once the kids get into high school, parents have less input into the
program," Burnoski said. "In the youth leagues, parents have so much more
control and involvement. They get real emotional about their kids. If you've
ever been to the young kids' soccer games, it's really bad."
     But the lack of parental interference at the high school level may change if improper behavior patterns of parents transfer, unmoderated, from youth
sports to scholastic sports as the child grows up.
     "In all of our society, we see this erosion of civility," said Fred Engh,
the founder of the National Alliance for Youth Sports (NAYS), which leads
the effort to develop community-based programs aimed at encouraging parents to display good sportsmanship. "Now, you have sideline rage, road rage ... The behavior of parents [at their children's sporting events] became an issue probably within the last five years.
     "It's the parent that begins this process. The ugly parent doesn't push his
child in sports, he shoves them. And that parent's behavior will follow the
child as he advances to middle school and then to high school."
     If that happens, school administrators may find their current policies --
which only loosely address such situations -- put to a tougher test.
     Under Florida High School Activities Association (FHSAA) guidelines, the
host school is responsible for the control of spectators. The FHSAA
recommends -- but doesn't require -- uniformed security personnel be at
events for that purpose. No specific requirements are mandated, leaving
school administrators to use their own judgment about how control is best
maintained.
      Football is the most strictly and visibly monitored of all high school
sports, largely due to the greater number of spectators. Area schools
routinely have uniformed security personnel on hand. Not every school
administrator, however, correlates attendance to an increased risk for
spectator violence.
     "I don't know how many people were in the stands at Orange Park, but there probably wasn't more than 100 people," St. Augustine athletic director Jeff Holland said. "Does that mean that with a smaller crowd there wouldn't have been a problem? I don't think so. If we have 5,000 people in attendance or 50, the main thing is to have the game go smoothly."
     Many school administrators and coaches believe the sport itself as well as the proximity of spectator seating to the field of play can dictate the
likelihood of interference. Soccer, baseball and basketball were singled out
by those interviewed as sports where problems are most apt to occur.
     "It's a minor problem in all of [the sports], but soccer and baseball
parents and fans are very, very passionate about their sport," Fletcher
athletic director Joe Reynolds said. "You also have a lot going on in
basketball because of how close the fans are [to the game]."
     While incidents reported at local high schools remain relatively few, Nease athletic director Glenn Aspinwall said national organizations for school
athletics personnel have begun to address the issue. At a recent seminar
sponsored by one association, Aspinwall attended a session designed to teach administrators how to defend themselves from physical attacks by parents or spectators. In that presentation, Aspinwall said, soccer was singled out as sport where unruly fan behavior was likely.
     With that in mind, Aspinwall, whose Nease team was the opponent at the
incident at Orange Park, reviewed his school's procedures after that game
with principal Bob Schiavone. Those procedures specify that at least one
school administrator will be at all athletic contests and uniformed security
will be present for the most well-attended events. Aspinwall and Schiavone
concluded these procedures, in place without any known exceptions at all
local high schools, are adequate to address any crowd behavior that can
reasonably be foreseen.
    That viewpoint is shared by the vast majority of athletics administrators at
area high schools. None of the coaches or athletic directors contacted
expressed concern that what they see as isolated acts of spectator violence
should result in tighter security measures in all situations.
    "I think the plan we have now is a good one and we're going to stick with
it," Holland said. "If there's somebody in the stands who wants to come out
of the stands, there's opportunity for them to do that -- I don't care how
good your plan is. [Uniformed security] is more a way to control things
after they've been done than a way to prevent them from happening."
     Staff writer Laurie Cason can be reached at (904) 359-4491.

     This story can be found on Jacksonville.com at
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/020403/hig_11653258.shtml
Soccer is a matter of Life or Death? Actually in many parts of the world it's more important than that.

      On the 13th of February 2000 a man died in the Intensive Care in Kenya. The doctor wanted to watch the finale of the Africa Cup before operating his patient. But the final game between Cameroon - Nigeria took more then 120 minutes and went to penalty kicks before there was a winner. In the mean time the patient died.

 
Aly Wagner comes of age


Will she change the face of US women's socccer?
“I think that it’s only a matter of time before she is the WUSA Player of the Year.

Down the line I’m sure that she will eventually come under consideration for best player at a World Cup or Olympic games” -- Jerry Smith, Santa Clara head coach.

by Llew Llewellyn

     This article is on-line at the CyberSoccerNews website at  http://www.cybersoccernews.com/ 

     Thanks to CyberSoccerNews for allowing us to reprint it in the NASL newsletter.

     February 5, 2003 (CSA) -- In what Spirit general manager Dave Presher called “one of the worst kept secrets in history,” San Diego left no doubt and took Santa Clara and U.S. national team midfielder Aly Wagner as the first overall pick in Sunday’s WUSA draft.
     So highly does the Spirit think of the 22-year-old Wagner that they executed the biggest trade in WUSA’s short history, swapping the second overall 2003 draft pick, two starting players, and a reserve to the New York Power in return for an aging defender, a rookie, and the advancement of a single place in the draft.
     Wagner has been touted as the biggest midfield talent yet to emerge from the American women’s soccer scene, a true “number ten.“ Her teammates and coaches all praise her in terms that haven’t been heard around U.S. soccer circles since the emergence of Claudio Reyna and Tab Ramos.
     “The attacking midfielder, men or women, is a key position that is very difficult to develop because it takes a variety of creativity, skill, vision and a real instinct for creating and scoring goals,” said Presher a few days after watching Wagner play Japan at Torero Stadium, the home of the Spirit. “In the American professional game, including MLS, foreign players fill that position. [We took] the opportunity to pick what we see as the best American player ever in that position.
     “If we have that player in place, then it suddenly makes all the players around her much better. We thought it was important for us to find that player, and they are very difficult to find. There are just a handful of them in the world.”
    April Heinrichs, head coach for the U.S. Women’s National Team, sees Wagner as a player that could fill different roles on the team.
    “Aly is a young player that we are still developing in a lot of roles and you may see her in a couple of different slots on the team,” Heinrichs said. “If we want to pigeonhole her, she’s the creative attacking center mid and she has the ability to spray the ball around the park and serve the ball with texture on every pass. The players love receiving balls from Aly Wagner.”
     Indeed they do. Wagner’s comfort level on the ball allows her the luxury to think about where to send the ball when she receives it, rather than how to handle it.
     “She is technical enough to no longer be concerned about the ball. Ninety-nine percent of the players I have coached in the last 20 years spend so much time thinking about the ball that they are not thinking about the game,” said Wagner’s college and U.S. U-21 coach Jerry Smith. “Aly rarely thinks about the ball.
     “There is not a ball that doesn’t come to her where she is wondering how to collect it, manipulate it and do something with it. She is so comfortable on the ball that she never thinks about it, she just thinks about the game and that puts her a step ahead of most players.”
     U.S. standout defender Brandi Chastain has known Aly for the past decade and has nothing but praise for the young player.
     “I think that her greatest quality, besides her passion for the game, is that she sees it all on a more complex level,” Chastain said. ”Her balls have texture. They don’t just go straight with whatever surface. She chooses the surface, the bend, or pace.
    “That’s special.”
    So, who is Alyson Kay Wagner?


Mom and the Mercury

     Wagner starting playing in her hometown of San Jose at the age of five with the Central Valley Mercury of the Central Santa Clara Valley Youth Soccer League. Initially under the guidance of her mother Vicky Wagner, Aly was following in the footsteps of her two brothers Jeff and Jered, and her sister Sam, who later went on to play soccer at UC Berkeley.
     In a remarkable streak, Aly was to stay with the Mercury for 14 years with her mother, and later her father Dennis, who had coached Sam Wagner and the Central Valley Express to the U-17 girls national championship in 1995. The Mercury became one of the top youth teams in the country, winning the U.S. Youth Soccer National Championships for an unprecedented three years running between 1996-98.
     “I had spent a couple of years coaching her older sister, and when she turned old enough to play, her dad took Sam, and I stayed with Aly and finished up with her when she was 18,” said Vicky Wagner sitting in the lobby of a San Diego hotel the day before the U.S. game against Japan, while a table away Aly and her father intently watched a NFL playoff game on a nearby big-screen TV.
     “For the first year she played coed, then started playing all girls and we were pretty successful,” Vicky Wagner said. “At that age you always have one or two players on the team, someone who can play defense and someone who can move the ball, and you are successful.
     “In the last game of her U-7 season, we had a playoff game, which when I look back now was ridiculous. The league had two undefeated teams, which happened to meet at the end of the season, and they battled each other to a 7-7 tie and Aly scored all seven goals. A prime example of what U-7 soccer should not be.
      “Her two best friends in soccer were on the other team, and their father came to me and said that it was ridiculous and why didn’t we join forces and get the girls together on a single team. They started playing together as eight-year-olds, and by the time we were U-10s, we were able to have competitive teams, which meant that you could have tryouts.
      “We had a pretty solid team at that point and by the time we were U-12, we had a sudden influx of talent because we had been pretty successful. We spent a great deal of time on skill. Just skills, skills, skills.”
      In a flash of insight, Vicky Wagner had hit upon a method of creating competition within her team. Realizing that ball control was an essential part of the game of soccer, she encouraged her players to concentrate on ball juggling and instituted the “juggling ladder” as a way for her young players to pit their control skills against each other.
      The ladder consisted of a yardstick and wooden clothespins marked with players names. After a basic order was established, every practice would begin with juggling challenges, with a lower player challenging a higher ranked player up the ladder. They would juggle against each other three times, and if a lower ranked player beat the higher ranked one, then their clothespin was moved above the challenged player.
      “The girls competed against each other every practice and that became a real focal point of something that they could do at home,” Vicky Wagner said. “We would send them home in the summer when they weren’t on teams with juggle challenges. They would have to juggle with tennis balls, left foot, right foot.
      “I came up with the idea and they had to tell me where they were when they came back. They spent a good deal of time just touching the ball. I guess that made them a little bit special.”
     The girls could juggle the ball with 100 touches by age 8 or 9, and Aly could do 1,500 touches by age 10. The idea of being comfortable on the ball was to pay huge dividends down the road.
     “That was an awesome thing that turned juggling into a competitive event,” said Aly. “I loved it and always wanted to be at the top of the juggling ladder. It spurred me on even more to be a better juggler.
     “Then she hired the trainer, which was a huge thing for us.”
     After coaching the Mercury for several years, Vicky Wagner realized at the U-12 age group that the team was improving so rapidly that it was time to find someone who would be able to take the team to another level. She contacted Santa Clara University head coach Jerry Smith and wife Brandi Chastain.
     “Aly’s mom was coaching her youth team and it came to the point that she needed someone with more soccer experience to work with her,” remembered Smith. “She approached Brandi and I about doing that, but neither of us could afford as much time as it would require to coach a youth team, but I had an assistant coach, Philippe Blin, and I introduced the two of them.”
     At that point, Vicky Wagner’s role changed from trainer to manager.
     “Philippe became the trainer because at that point I didn’t have the ability to take them to the level they needed to go,“ Vicky Wagner said. “My job was to keep everything running smoothly and keep a lot of really talented kids and their parents happy.”
      Blin’s approach to coaching 11-year-old girls was to treat them the same way he treated the young women he coached at Santa Clara University, where he was instrumental in leading them through their national championships.
      “He came from a college program and early on he started to train us the way that college teams train, [although] obviously not at the same level,” Aly Wagner said. “But it gave us a glimpse into the future and we all became better players because of it.”
      According to Vicky Wagner, Blin’s expectation level was high.
      “Philippe was a wonderful trainer and he brought them to a level early on that most teams would never reach, “she said. “Practices were very business-like and you had to perform. There was a lot of competition on the team.”
      The Wagner-led Mercury had become the team to join in the San Jose area. They took numerous local, area and state titles and produced an astonishing number of players who went on to become top-flight college players and vital members of both WUSA and U.S. women’s teams.
      “The team attracted incredibly talented players,” remembered Vicky Wagner. “Danielle Slaton [first overall pick in the 2002 WUSA draft], Anna Krause who plays for the San Diego Spirit, and Krista and Breana Boling who were stars in their own right at UCLA.
      “Shaelyn Fernandes, who was the goalie at USC and who is about to marry [2002 Heisman Trophy Winner] Carson Palmer. We had Marcia Wallis, who went to Stanford, and Katy MacBain at Texas. Christina Jacobs played for San Diego State. I think we had 13-14 girls who ended up at Division 1 schools.
      When the Mercury took their third national title, Aly was forced to sit out the final game after suffering an ACL injury while practicing with the U.S. U-20 national team. The injury -- her second ACL surgery -- not only required her to miss the U-18 title match, but also had repercussions in her freshman year as a college player.

      To read the rest of the article including the college years and recent professional draft go to:
http://www.cybersoccernews.com/uswomen/030205wagnerpt2.shtml
 
Directions to Fields - Updated for 2003 School Season
       Tom Coatoam with NASOA has provided us with an updated list of directions to all the high school and middle school soccer fields in North Alabama.  It is posted on-line at http://www.nasl.com/hs/hs_directions.htm
        Our thanks go out to Tom and NASOA for their help.

 

NASL NEWSLETTER:

       You may sign up for the NASL e-mail list and also provide changes (including removing your name from the list) to your current e-mail address and phone numbers by using this form at  http://www.nasl.com/Email.htm This is our means of keeping the local soccer community up-to-date on events and items of interest.  If you have something to contribute please e-mail me at dsports@hiwaay.net
All of the above information and more is on-line at http://www.nasl.com

Thanks for being involved in soccer in Alabama. 

Ken Gamble - NASL Secretary
"Next Goal Wins!"