August 2007
Well, I am no longer a volunteer coach with the Graham Recreation Department. Not sure how I got left out of the loop, though it is not unusual for a Discoverer like I am (Google Kingdomality to learn about that). But I am not absent from youth soccer. My girls are not playing on a team with the Burlington Soccer Club and I have been asked (and accepted) to serve as the team manager for the team. This means I get to handle a lot of the business side of the team - keeping parents up to date, managing the budget, etc.Below is the information I had posted here from last spring. Mainly left here for historical purposes.
The Old Stuff
As I mention on the home page, I am a volunteer soccer coach with the City of Graham's Recreation Department. I am currently coaching a team in the Biddy League (4 and 5 year olds). This is a fun league to coach as I get to set the foundation not only for the kids development as soccer players, but overall motor skills as well. Often at this age it is the first time they are participating in anything organized, so part of the goal is to also teach them a little bit about following directions and of course, sportsmanship.
The team I coach is the Slammers. I don't know where the name came from - it was the name of the team a couple years ago when my girls played on it and it lives on. The team colors used to be gold and black. When I took over, I changed them to purple and gold (partly because I was tired of every team wearing black shorts) - a choice I later had a smidgen of regret about as I realized it was East Carolina colors - blecchhh. For the Fall 2006 season, the uniform was a two-color deal of light blue and dark blue and we had a sponsor - S&S Siding. Mucho thanks to them for helping offset the cost of the uniforms. It was another great season for the team and I think all of the players who are aging up and sticking with soccer will be solid contributors on their respective teams.
For the Spring 2007 season, some change is in the air. First of all, I have virtually an entirely new team (only one returning player - though I did pick up the younger brother of one of my former players and I just recently picked up another player from a different team that played last fall). So, with the new team I am getting new uniforms yet again. This time, Royal blue jerseys, shorts and socks with some white trim. I wanted to go with orange and blue (to match my business), but discovered orange shorts are not the easiest thing to get AND another local business, Dave's Discount Furniture - is sponsoring a team, and they are orange. One nice thing though (at least I think) is I developed a logo for the team. Nothing spectacular, but unique to the team nonetheless.For the Spring 2007 season, here is some information for parents:
- General Information sheet(practice info, phone numbers)
- Biddy League playing rules
- Spring 2007 Schedule
- Spring 2007 Snack Schedule
- Picture Day - Photo Order Sheet (appx 7MB file)
| Opponent | Field | Day | Date | Time | Snacks/Bench |
| Carolina Snakes | A | Monday | 3/19 | 5:45 | Hayes |
| Trojans | B | Thursday | 3/22 | 5:45 | Nance |
| Picture Day Snow Leopards | A | Saturday | 3/24 | TBA 9:00 | May |
| Grasshoppers | A | Tuesday | 3/27 | 5:45 | Morrison |
| Dragons | B | Thursday | 3/29 | 5:45 | Day |
| Carolina Snakes | B | Tuesday | 4/3 | 6:45 | Davis |
| Trojans | A | Thursday | 4/5 | 5:45 | Stanforth |
| Snow Leopards | B | Tuesday | 4/17 | 5:45 | Gushman |
In the meantime, we are also trying something new with my daughters. By all accounts, they are budding soccer stars. Ever since they started playing, they have excelled and last fall were quite the talk of the league (their team won the regular season championship, but lost in the championship game of the tournament). Some of the feedback we have received indicates they can be really special. So, after doing some research, we decided for the spring season to sign them up with Chapel Hill United in the Advanced Development Program (ADP) in the girls U8 division. Our hope is that they will get some good instruction, especially on some of the technical skills, so they can really develop. They will be playing on the Maryland Terrapins team.
As a side note, this past winter they played in an Upward Basketball league at the church up the street from us. As we have discovered, they are quite good at basketball as well. Apparently they are just natural athletes (they are very smart and well behaved too!). A while back we watched a show on The Discovery Channel about research into twins. One of the findings that is being researched some more is the fact that as the twins develop inside mommy, they get more tactile feedback than a single does. So there is some thought that this helps them develop motor skills more quickly. Perhaps there is some truth to that?
