NASL  NEWSLETTER

December 31st, 2003
Happy New Year!
 

1. Upcoming Soccer Calendar - new dates added.
2. Opening for NASL Game and Field Scheduler
3. Charlie Zarzour NASL Scholarships
4. Inter Milan and Atlanta Silverbacks Broaden Relationship
5. Top Ten Issues in Coaching Kids Today
6. Bill Dworsky of the Huntsville Soccer Club U16 Boys State Champions scorers two goals against Finland and one more against US Men's U17 NT
7. Southern Soccer Scene
8. Free Help for Coaches at NASL
9. How to Remove Your Name From this E-mail List.

      After this spring soccer season, long time NASL Game and Field Scheduler and Alabama Soccer Parent of the Year, Craig Hardwick, will retire as the NASL's scheduler.  The league is looking for a replacement.  If you are interested or know someone who would make a good scheduler please contact Christy Clark at clarkhse@yahoo.com or Craig Hardwick at AL1Best@knology.net or Irene Wisner at iwisner@knology.net

Job Requirements:
      The NASL Scheduler has to be available via cell phone at most hours.  This is a difficult task for those with full time jobs so please consider carefully if you have the availability needed.
      The scheduler must be impartial and have the "people skills" to work with all NASL clubs and teams and has to be able to deal with the various cities, Parks and Rec departments, AYSA, AYSO, HAS, etc. – all of which have different objectives.
      It is very important to the NASL Board that the scheduler needs to be unbiased toward any club.  Any candidate who is taking the job to provide a prejudicial benefit to their own club will NOT be selected. 

Benefits:
      Currently the scheduler receives pay of about $2,250 during the fall season and considerably less during the slower spring season.  The scheduler will also be reimbursed at a set rate for his/her cell phone use in the line of duty.

      For the third year in a row the NASL is offering a $500 scholarship to a boy and girl high school senior again this season.  The deadline for nomination by their coach AND submitting the required essay for this year is March 31st, 2004.  The board prefers the nominations from the coaches be made as soon as possible.  The actual essays may be turned in anytime up until midnight on March 31st, 2004. 
      Votes will be taken the first week of April and a final decision will be rendered no later than April 15^th with the actual scholarships to be awarded during the AHSAA High School Championship games on May 8th, 2004 at the John Hunt Soccer Complex in Huntsville.
      Information about the scholarships can be found on-line at http://www.nasl.com/articles/scholarship.htm

The Atlanta Silverbacks met with Inter Milan last week in Milan, Italy and agreed to broaden their partnership.

Stephen Pratten and Stilian Shishkov of the Atlanta Silverbacks met with Piero Ausilio, Organizational Director of the Youth Academy, and Lello Dragone, Organizational Director of Inter Campus, at the San Siro stadium that is home to Inter Milan and agreed to expand the partnership between the two organizations to include Inter Milan’s youth division.

Beginning in the Fall of 2004, two Atlanta Silverback youth players, one born in 1987, one born in 1989 will travel to Milan to practice with the Inter Milan youth team of that same age. The players will work out with the teams for two weeks and will stay at the Inter Milan youth training facility under the guidance and direction of Inter Milan coaching staff.

Stephen Pratten, Atlanta Silverbacks President and CEO commented, “obviously this is a tremendous opportunity for our youth players. In addition to the obvious chance to impress coaches from one of the top clubs in the world, the experience they will gain from traveling to and living in Italy in this type of environment will be invaluable.”

The Silverbacks indicated this announcement is the first of several enhancements to their youth program currently being worked on.

For More News visit AtlantaSilverbacks.com

CLICK HERE for Directions to the Stadium

The featured article comes from a radio show out of New York every Sunday morning from 8-9 AM. Rick Wolff is the host. During one show he highlighted the Top Ten Issues in Coaching today. Below are some excerpts from the show:
 

• No. 10 - Dealing with Frustration - or maybe this is better known as How to Communicate with your players effectively…..if you're a yeller or screamer at your players then you're becoming obsolete…..Why? because the vast majority of kids today DO NOT respond well to being belittled by their coaches….modify your approach so that you yell at the TEAM in general - not at an individual player. .
   
• Top Issue No. 9 - Make every possible effort to get everybody into the game….now, this is a tough challenge for some coaches, especially at the varsity level, you want to win….but the best coaches seem to understand that in order for the team to win, it helps dramatically if every kid get a chance to break a sweat and get dirty
   
• Issue No. 8 - Learn how to Communicate with your players. Build a rapport with every kid on your team….talk to them one on one….let them feel free to give you ideas, feedback, etc…. sometimes, the players know better than you do who should play where on the team….
   
• Issue No. 7 - Parents should be treated with respect and with friendship-they are NOT to be avoided like the plague….parents want from you are two things: 1) a few kind words about how their kid is doing, and 2) they may want to offer a coaching strategy or two. If they call you, make every effort to call them back within 24 hours.
   
• Issue No. 6 - Make sportsmanship a key priority…..Teach your kids about the Golden Rule in Sports - treat your opponents the way you would like to be treated. Teach your kids how to win - and lose -- with class.
   
• Issue No. 5 - Be careful with your words! You can never go wrong with praise, but you can really run into problems if you lash out at your kids and use words that cut right to the bone. Sarcasm is really the worst enemy you can have.
   
• Issue No. 4 - Don't try to be the player's best friend. He or she already has lots of friends.
   
• Issue No. 3 - "We're building for the future - -that's why I'm playing the younger kids over the seniors." Hmm….is that fair? At what point do you pull the plug on the seniors who have waited for their turn to play on the varsity?
   
• Issue No. 2 - Conditioning and safety….coach, what do you do if you find out that one of your kids is taking some legal but controversial nutritional supplements to his or her diet? Suppose it was your kid?
   
• Issue No. 1 - Discipline - Every coach on every team has to have some sort of team discipline. That's the easy part. The hard part is to trying to determine what kind of punishment should be handed out if a kid disobeys one of the rules.
   

http://www.pelinks4u.org/sections/coaching/coaching.htm

• http://www.usysa.org/mediacenter/N/66376_E.html

  US Youth Soccer Boys ODP Region III defeats Finland Under-17 Men’s National Team 4 - 0.
  The US Youth Soccer Boys ODP Region III team handed Finland a decisive loss as the Region III defense kept them off the scoreboard. Region III scored four goals to none as Bill Dworsky (AL) started them off early with a goal in the 6th minute then followed-up later with another in the 59th. Sonny Guadarrama (TX) added a goal in the 75th minute as his buddy from the Lone Star State Manuel Mariel (TX) did in the 63rd minute of play.
   

• http://www.usyouthsoccer.org/scripts/runisa.dll?m2:gp::
  15040+mediacenter/display+E+66463+A
  
  US Youth Soccer Boys ODP Region III vs. U.S. Under-17 Men's National Team 3:1 The US Youth Soccer Boys ODP Region III team had the U.S. Under-17 Men's defense guessing as Region III poured on three goals to one.  Billy Dworsky
  (AL) started things off in the 14th minute with Luis Fraz (TX) following his lead in the 17th minute followed by one for good measure in the 60th minute by teammate Estavan Mariel.  Dworsky netted his second goal of the adidas Super Group.

       If you want to keep up with soccer in the South, then Southern Soccer Scene is the magazine for you. Check out the on-line edition at  http://www.southernsoccerscene.com.
       Receive Your FREE Issue Today! Fill out the form below and submit it to start your subscription to Southern Soccer Scene. You receive 12 issues (One Year) for only $25.00 or 24 issues (Two Years) for $40.00 and SAVE 18%. Send no money now. We will bill you later.
       Southern Soccer Scene gives you:

• Greater regional soccer coverage throughout the Southeast.
• A greater commitment to college soccer.
• New coaching articles, training methods, features, player and coaching profiles.

      Satisfaction Guaranteed! If you decide Southern Soccer Scene is not for you, simply write "Cancel" on the invoice and return it to us — you keep the FREE issue. For subscription questions call or email us.  Payment by MasterCard or VISA accepted by phone (M-W, 9:30 am/5:00 pm) (336) 292-7015.
http://www.southernsoccerscene.com/subscribe.htm

      Since January I have been moving thousands of drills, tips, articles and exercises from my old website at DecaturSports.com to the NASL website in an effort to make the NASL website the largest repository of help for soccer coaches on the internet.  The DecaturSports.com website was one of only two website recommended by NSCAA for youth coaches at their annual convention. Since the DecaturSports.com website covered many sports I felt it was important to place this wealth of soccer material on the NASL website which is soccer only.
      There are articles on virtually every topic that ever interested soccer coaches and for coaches from newly drafted dads and moms to USSF "A" Licensed coaches.  Recently added were on-line videos of all the Coerver moves and the Gary Rue's Exercises of the Day.  This is a year long project for me and I still have many, many  more to post so let me know if there is anything in particular you would like to see and I'll get it posted first.
      Stop by http://www.nasl.com/drills.htm and look around and I think you will agree that it is the finest selection of soccer coaching material on the internet.  Ken dsports@hiwaay.net  

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!"

REMOVAL INSTRUCTIONS

     This low-tech emailing list is maintained for the benefit of coaches, referees, and parents involved in youth soccer in Alabama. List maintenance is semi-automatic. If you are no longer in Alabama or wish to be removed from this list for any reason, simply send an e-mail to dsports@hiwaay.net with "Delete", "Remove", "Exclude", "Unsubscribe", "Stop!", No More!, "Cease and Desist!", or something similar in the subject line. Regional dialects, colloquialisms, and various misspellings (e.g., Cut it out!, Delist, Unlist, Disenfranchise, Quit me, Unsuscribe [sic], Unsuscripe [sic], Describe, and Unscribe) are understood.
     "Drop Dead, Pond Scum" works also, although emails with profanity (e.g, Go to He!!) will be filtered out and automatically discarded so that the youth players who volunteer in the NASL office won't see them. Other requests, particularly those that include the word me (e.g., Drop me, Terminate me, Cut me or worse, Cut me off, Take me off, Purge me, Reject me, Take me down, Expunge me, Take me out, and Kill me) are cause for concern but are generally implemented figuratively rather than literally.
     Tense, gender, and grammar (e.g., Please removed us/we/him/her.) are irrelevant. Some requests (e.g., Enscribe and Obscribe) confuse us and may result in additional contact. Manners (e.g., Please, Sorry, and Thank you, anyway.) are optional.
     Explanations (e.g., I visited Huntsville once on the way to the Calaveras Frog Jumping Contest and loved looking at the space museum, but I have never lived in Northern Alabama.) are always interesting and are appreciated.
     Sporting metaphors (e.g., I don't want to play on your team.) help soften the blow. Denials (e.g., There is no one here who plays soccer. or We hate that game.) mean we entered someone's email address incorrectly. We're used to but politely disagree with gender stereotyping (e.g, Real men play pointy football. and Soccer is a man's game, not a game for skirts). Questions (e.g., How did you get my email address?) generally can't be answered because nobody in the NASL office knows the answers to them.
     Your email address and all other alias email addresses that you include in the body of your request will automatically be added to NASL's Exclude List. This will permanently stop delivery of all types of future NASL announcements, including those for upcoming tryouts, coaching/refereeing courses, refereeing opportunities for league and tournament games, and birthday parties. You can also quit yourself from NASL's e-mail page at http://www.nasl.com/Email.htm

NOTE: The wonderful removal instructions listed above were adapted with permission from Michael Lindeburg at San Andreas Youth Soccer Organization, http://www.sayso.org