Goal Lines Magazine - Issue 21 - November 2017

OREGON YOUTH SOCCER ASSOCIATION’S MONTHLY MAGAZINE

ISSUE #21

GOAL LINES AND THE NOMINEES ARE… On January 13th, 2018, the Oregon Youth Soccer Association will host its Awards Gala at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel in downtown Portland. This is where we recognize YOU and your contributions to the sport of soccer in Oregon. Look inside to see how you can nominate your coach, your manager, board member, volunteer parent, or other soccer-enthusiast, and have them presented with their award at our awards gala.

NOMINATE YOUR 2017 OREGON YOUTH SOCCER ASSOCIATION AWARD WINNERS INSIDE NOMINATION PROCESS ENDS DECEMBER 1ST, 2017

Credit card payment due at time of application. For questions about the tournament, email Jose Campos, Manager of Leagues and Tournaments, by clicking here.

OREGON YOUTH SOCCER ANNUAL AWARDS Each year, in January on the same day as the Annual General Mtg, Oregon Youth Soccer presents awards to the person(s) who have been nominated by their peers for recognition.

Nominations, as always, can be made by anyone. We’ll ask you initially for the category you’re nominating them for, and a few other details about why. Then you get to write a short bio about them, and tell us why!

2016 KEYNOTE SPEAKER - TIMBER JIM

Winners will selected by a panel, and notified by December 16th. They and a guest will be invited to the Awards Gala on January 13th in downtown Portland.

CATEGORIES INCLUDE: Volunteer of the Year, Boys Rec Coach of the Year, Girls Rec Coach of the Year, Boys Competitive Coach of the Year, Girls Competitive Coach of the Year Admin of the Year, Outstanding Contribution Award, TOPSoccer Coach of the Year, TOPSoccer Buddy of the Year

Brett Thompson’s lifetime of experiences in soccer include Executive Director PYSA, State Director of Coaching, US Youth Soccer Region 2 Girls ODP Head Coach, and US Youth Soccer National Instructor. US Youth Soccer. Brett is a strong advocate of small sided games, wishes he could have the super power to open people’s minds to embrace new ideas and believes youth soccer should be about the players — not the adults or big profits.

TOO MUCH SOCCER FOR YOUTH SOCCER This article will tackle the often-debated subject of Organized and Select Soccer for our young players. There has been much heated debate over small sided play / games for younger age children as well as the debate around the country about looking at eliminating select soccer for younger players. The debate over eliminating select soccer is brought up because too much pressure from parents and parental pressure on coaches who are paid to win and coaches who feel they must win to keep their paycheck coming in.

Many players today have been playing competitive level soccer since they were 9 years old and play as many as 60 games a year.

This does not include indoor games, futsal etc which could add another 20 games per year totaling 80 games per year. The amount of games these young children play is unbelievable when you compare it to professional teams in Europe who play no more than 64 games a year. The professionals also never play more than 2 games per week let alone 5 games in a weekend like some of our players do at tournaments. Are we beating the pure fun of the game out of them early and does competing become the norm rather than something to look forward to? Where does the player development come from if players are playing 3 games a week, when do you practice? Think about this a game is like a test at school, if you are always taking tests and not getting a chance to learn what you will be tested on how do you learn? How can teams practice if all they are doing is playing to survive and stay in the division they are in or trying to move up. It becomes human instinct of survival and as a result coaches play to win rather than develop. Over the last 20-30 years the number of players and games those players play has increased dramatically. Even with increasing the number of games in this country, we can still not compare with the rest of the world, especially on the men’s side. On the women’s side we have done quite well over the past couple of decades or so, however there have been many cultural issues that have allowed American women to dominate soccer in the world. In women’s soccer today we can see that the rest of the world is catching up even though they may not have the pure athletes as we do in this country, but they may begin to surpass us technically as well as tactically in the very near future if not already if we are not careful. Our women’s game today is too reliant on athletes rather than soccer players who understand how to solve problems, who know how to bend a ball, who can spin a ball (Put English on it) and players who can not get out of tight spaces.

So why is it that soccer players in Latin America are so good considering they have little to no adult supervision when they are young soccer players playing in the street or park? As one Argentinean professional player said “I think we are too unorganized to be organized”. Players in South America play pick up games on a regular basis without adult intervention as a result, play a craftier style or as my father said to me growing up a “cheeky game”. These players often are better in 1 vs 1 confrontations, able to create space better for themselves and others and most of all have an absolute joy and love for the game. These players learned how to solve the problems presented to them as they came up in games without an adult “Telling” them how to solve it.

Let’s compare soccer to basketball in this country. Today’s basketball player has a basketball hoop in their driveway or one located at the local playground. These players hone their skills in “Pickup Games” without adult intervention and instruction. Players in this environment are free to experiment, take chances, try new moves, fail without retribution form an adult and their role in the game may change many times based on who they are playing with. Just imagine if Michael Jordan, Lebron James, Kobe Bryant and Stephen Curry had played soccer. These players learned to love and play the game by playing pick up games first before they were thrust into the adult world of athletics. (Continued on page 17)

ONE LAST CHANCE TO RECOGNIZE OUR 2016 WINNERS ————————

Please join us in recognizing our 2016 Award Winners one more time

2016 GIRLS RECREATIONAL COACH OF THE YEAR:

MATT MAYER

2016 BOYS RECREATIONAL COACH OF THE YEAR:

ANTONIO GONZALEZ

2016 GIRLS COMPETITIVE COACH OF THE YEAR:

CORY HAND

2016 BOYS COMPETITIVE COACH OF THE YEAR:

NATE WALZER

2016 TOPSOCCER COACH OF THE YEAR:

SEBASTIAN TRICKETT

2016 TOPSOCCER BUDDY OF THE YEAR:

KAELA LEE

2016 VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR:

JON LUCERO

2016 ADMINISTRATOR OF THE YEAR:

KRISTI POLTE

2016 YOUNG MALE REFEREE OF THE YEAR:

OSCAR BENEVIDEZ

2016 YOUNG FEMALE REFEREE OF THE YEAR:

LAUREN THOMPSON

AND A SPECIAL THANK YOU TO OUR 2016 KEYNOTE SPEAKER:

TIMBER JIM SERRILL

What are you doing around the state? What does your team look like? Got a crazy picture for us? Want everyone to see what it’s like playing at your club? Well, now’s your chance! Click the submit button and send us your pics.

GRASSROOTS COORDINATOR: ALY HOLLEWIJN All of our Grassroots Coordinators have extensive coaching background around the state of Oregon, and elsewhere so they bring unique experiences to their particular region.

We are proud to have Aly in the south of the state representing OYSA and she has been a fantastic ambassador for women in the game of soccer.

WOMEN IN COACHING In a recent edition of GoalNation, University of New Mexico’s head Women’s soccer coach was featured in a discussion about women in coaching and the hurdles they are facing in this era. A consistent theme in this discussion was the concept of being gender blind in the evaluation process of coaches. She clearly states that coaches should be evaluated on how well they can teach, motivate, and lead players, not by gender (Scavuzzo, 2016). That each of these traits are “gender blind.”

In the past decade that I have been working in the coaching world I have seen the movement for equality for female coaches take a fast and quick upturn. As time has worn on and female coaches voices are getting heard one theme that seems to be hitting the press is the concept of equality through being gender blind. Essentially, what this means is hiring and measuring employees (coaches) based off of skill and performance rather than what the assumed outcome will be based off of gender.

The concept of being ‘gender blind’ is not one that can be achieved overnight. Because of societal norms, many of us are raised making assumptions about what genders are capable of and what traits they ‘should’ poses. This has unfortunately set up many professional women for failure. These women might not fit in their assumed norms and therefore are put in the wrong position which leads to potential burn out and disappointment. In Jim Collins’ popular business strategy book, “Good to Great”, he drives the point home of “getting the RIGHT people on the bus and then putting them in the RIGHT seats” (Collins, 2001). And when it comes to being gender blind, establishing what the right seats are cannot be based off of gender but off of technical skill, experience, education, and a whole gamut of soft skills.

Here is your first step for being ‘gender blind’ within your organization. Fill your open positions with the proper resume and skill set. If you want to hire more female coaches, please do. Do not assume that the 23 year old former college player is perfect for your U10 girl’s team because she is a young energetic woman. Learn her traits and skills and plug her into the team that demands her skill set.

This discussion of being ‘gender blind’ is a much larger one than a short article, I will be speaking at the OYSA Annual General Meeting where we will be taking an hour long, engaging, deep dive into organizational structure and how eliminating gender bias from our hiring process can empower not just your female coaches but all participating parties within your club (coaches, players, administrators, parents, and board members). Please see the schedule provided by the OYSA for more information.

US Youth Soccer TOPSoccer (The Outreach Program for Soccer) is a community-based training and team placement program for young athletes with disabilities, organized by youth soccer association volunteers.

The program is designed to bring the opportunity of learning and playing soccer to any boy or girl, who has a mental or physical disability. Our goal is to enable the thousands of young athletes with disabilities to become valued and successful members of the US Youth Soccer family.

How do you participate?

Check out the list below of areas where clubs already have a TOPSoccer program running or contact your club about starting one. We can help you, too, to set up and run a program within your club, and ALL FEES ARE WAIVED for the TOPSoccer program by the Oregon

EXISTING PROGRAMS Click on any name to email the director of that program.

Albany

Beaverton

Clackamas

Eugene

Gresham

Medford

Milton Freewater

St Helens

State Chair (OYSA)

Youth Soccer Association.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9 Soccer in this country has become too organized and structured more “Adult like environment” than a “Child like environment”. Just look at the tournament schedules on the web today; there is a tournament every single weekend within driving distance of Oregon.

Players today are being scouted and identified by age 6 and 7. Look at how many parents are paying coaches to train their child who has “Potential”, who can identify a player who is 6 or 7, where do we live in the old East Germany? Players at age 7 and 8 are being pigeon holed into positions and placed with other children of equal athletic ability so they can win. Players may only be moved into different positions in some cases only if the team “”Has a good lead” because the coach does not want to lose and have to face the parent who will move their child to a “Winner”.

Many parents often worry that unless they get their child into select (Competitive) soccer early that they will not succeed. Succeed at what; and why do this? Maybe it is because today many parents see the Brass Ring, that college scholarship? Maybe it is the fact that they played at a high level and they feel that their child should get an early start to ensure they will be a better soccer player or athlete than they were?

For our players to grow into soccer players today we must allow them to play different positions allow them to have successes and have failures (without retribution). Player’s grow, mature and comprehend of the game grow at different rates. Their understating of soccer and physical size can change in the span of 6 to 12 months. In is inconceivable to me that a coach or parent would try to identify the player who has potential by the age of 10.

We must change the way we are teaching the game in this country today. We talk a good game about developing players while we spend most of our time finding and identifying those players who may be bigger, stronger and faster so we can turn them into “Elite Athletes” at camps that parents are willing to pay up to $200 a month for 7 year olds. It is my opinion that we need to slow down on putting players into competitive environments too early. Every year this country produces a “National Champion” and yet at least on the men’s side we have yet to win a World Cup. Today’s soccer requires an athlete who has the ability to solve problems on his or her own quickly. We do not need soccer players who play for coaches who treat them as if it is a Play Station game. We must allow our players to learn the game at the pace that is appropriate to their age and not rush things.

We as adults believe that if we provide a structured environment we can speed up the learning process and we have better soccer players on our hands. We as adults try to put players in our iPhone world while fitting them into what we believe they should do and play rather than understand the game each and every one of them plays and how they play it is nothing but an expression of their personality.

I will leave you with this thought from ‘Zorba the Greek’ by Kazantzakis: ”Readiness: I remember one morning when I discovered a cocoon in the bark of a tree, just as a butterfly was making a hole in its case and preparing to come out. I waited a while, but it was taking too long appearing and I was impatient. I bent over and breathed on it to warm it. I warmed it as quickly as I could and the miracle began to happen before my eyes faster than life. The case opened, the butterfly started crawling out and I shall never forget my horror when I saw how its wings were folded and crumpled; the wretched butterfly tried with its entire whole trembling body to unfold them. Bending over it, I tried to help with my breath in vain. It needed to be hatched out patiently and unfolding of the wings should be a gradual process in the sun. Now it was too late, my breath had forced the butterfly to appear all crumpled before it’s time. It struggled desperately for few seconds but later died in the palm of my hand. That little body is, I do believe, the greatest weight on my conscience. For I realize today that it is a mortal sin to violate the great laws of nature. We should not hurry, we should not be impatient, but we should confidently obey the eternal rhythm.”

INSIDE VINNY Vinny is our van. We use him for a lot of things like transporting gear to clubs, carting around signage, video gear, and those all important trophies and medals for the tournaments around the state.

We also do interviews inside him. This week, we’ve got our state registrar, Desia Bramel in the hot seat.

Desia will be going over some of the issues your teams might be facing as we jump into cup play at the end of this season and what pitfalls you can do to avoid it.

It’s Desia Bramel!

ROAD LOG So far this month Vinny has logged over 1,000 miles visiting different places around the state.

CLUBS/PLACES VISITED:

Scappoose, Liberty Stadium,

Hillsboro, The Dalles, and Washington Timbers.

FOLLOW VINNY ON TWITTER

Re-register as a referee for 2018!

WHISTLE STOP Times are changing in Oregon’s soccer landscape.

Our members reached out to us and asked us to review how referees are trained, retained, mentored, assigned and recruited.

So we’ve done just that!

This page lets all referees, from the rookies to the most experienced, know what is going on specifically for them in their corner of the game.

CUP SEASON IS HERE! As the Fall season wraps up for most teams, we turn our attention to the ‘Cup Season’. That’s the start of the Presidents and Founders Cups that begin during November for most teams. As we know, cup competition means more pressure and things get amplified during these games, and the games matter more over a shorter time period. In a league, you can lose a few games and still do well for the most par, but in cup play that’s not going to happen. Remember, these are kids sometimes that referee.

Parents and spectators most likely will not be fully used to the nuances, so referees will need to be compassionate to this fact. Although yelling and screaming from the sidelines towards referees, is NOT acceptable, referees can help and are encouraged to explain and educate when possible.

As a reminder, here is a link to the new Laws of the Game produced by the IFAB and adopted by FIFA. Click here.

Thanks again for everyone’s continued dedication to the game of soccer. The partnership with OYSA and the Oregon Referee Committee (ORC) continues to develop with the referee and the game of soccer in mind. For more information on how to become a referee, or if you are a club interested in hosting a new referee course, please email David Grbavac @ david@oregonyouthsoccer.org

Look what we found in the vaults!

This is from Goal Lines in 2003. Oh how soccer has changed!

MEET THE CLUB Union County Youth Soccer Association is one of the most remote clubs in Oregon. Located in the Blue

AT A GLANCE

Mountains up in the northeast corner of the Central/Eastern District in La Grande, it is a self-sustained league all its own.

✓ Formed officially in 2006

Don’t let it’s size fool you however as this is a club that punches way above it’s weight. With leagues supporting

✓ Offer soccer to kids aged 5

the U7 Micros up to the U14 players, they are a very well organized and efficient club, and their league philosophy says it all: “It is the objective of UCYSA to create fun for children and youth by promoting sportsmanship and a sense of fair play within the framework of a team sport and develop an interest in and a working knowledge of soccer.” (UCYSA By-Laws) Please keep in mind that this is a recreational league. Blowouts are to be limited as creatively as possible. Every individual player is to be encouraged. When one team gets a large lead of five goals, some action should be taken by the coach and the ref, for instance rotating front players to the back line or having a “designated scorer” UCYSA is focused on player development and they have something for everyone. Aside from the various

through 16 in the Fall and Spring seasons each year. ✓ Located in La Grande, OR ✓ Play against teams from eastern Oregon, Idaho, and in the eastern Washington leagues ✓ Are extremely active in the community with younger kids and coaches.

age groups they have competitive programs for U12, U14 and U16 players, as well as both developmental and recreational of the kids who want to play in the Fall. They also have a U10 Developmental League in the Fall season, too.

They are unique in that they produce their U7 to U16 leagues in the summer and have over 700 players participating, with a staggering 110 volunteer coaches, giving them a 7:1 players-to-coaching ratio which can only mean that the players are getting some serious attention during training. This was certainly evident when three of their competitive players received invitations to the ODP Region IV regional camp in 2016.

Club President, Kobe Young, says, “First and foremost the kids should enjoy their soccer experience. We try to create training and playing environments where the kids have fun, and develop skills that will serve them on and off the pitch.”

CLUB PRESIDENT KOBE YOUNG

MONTHLY LESSON PLAN FROM THE OREGON YOUTH SOCCER ASSOCIATION Each month we will feature a new lesson plan for you. Simply click on the image below to go to a downloadable PDF.

MONTHLY LESSON PLAN FROM THE OREGON YOUTH SOCCER ASSOCIATION Each month we will feature a new lesson plan for you. Simply click on the image below to go to a downloadable PDF.