One More Year at the Helm

After the USA Cup Championship game on Saturday, I let the group know that I would be taking the team for another year.  My thought coming into this current year was that is was going to be my last with this group.  I had been "grooming" our current U10s in the East to begin with them full time this fall as U11s, looking to mimic the training program that the U13s had gone through the last 3 years, again with the goal of the current U10s to represent MN at the U13 age group in 2010 at Regionals.  However, though I did look for a qualified coaching candidate to take my current group next year, I was not able to find someone that I thought was experienced and knowledgeable enough to take these girls to the next level.

I feel completely qualified to take these girls through U19.  Though I do relish in the challenge of coaching at the older age groups, my passion is for working with the younger players.  However, I care too much about this current group of girls and the parent group to just simply say "see ya later!" and leave them with a random coach who may not meet my personal standards.  Not that my recommendations and standards are the end all be all of decisions, but I know this group and I know what they need to continue to progress and develop at the pace they have all become accustomed too over the last few years.  The parents and kids have made a commitment to me and to our club, and it's not fair to them to place them with just any old coach.  Though my schedule will be hectic at times, I'm really looking forward to the next year with this group.

Mark Cook (BTFC Girls Coaching Director) will be co-coaching with me.  It will be great to have a full time partner in working with these girls, and Cook brings a wealth of experience to this group as he was the head coach with the Bangu Tsunami Stars through their U15 year.  He's seen what else is out there at these age groups and has a good idea of things that we need to address in order to be nationally competitive.  My goal is to also have Megan A help when she can, as she did this past year.

I would like to think that most of the girls are excited that I'll be returning.

On Sunday at the team party, I spoke with the parent group about the plans moving into the next year.  I mentioned to them that I realize that I, as their coach, can be guilty of pigeon-holing the girls into certain positions or into starting vs non-starting positions.  Though I do feel that I move the girls around more than most coaches at this age, especially coaches who deal with higher competitive teams, when push comes to shove in tight matches, the girls are in positions in which I think they best help the team get results.  I realize that all coaches see players differently though, so my comment to the parent group was that there would be a more heavy emphasis at tryouts this year of outside evaluators looking at this group.  Cook and I will make final decisions on team make up, but in the best interest of all the girls on the team, we will weigh unbiased evaluators opinions more than usual.  The other evaluators will be coaches within our club at the older age levels. 

I know parents, sometimes more than the players, are worried about tryout results.  I have never coached a team that has not has at least a few players turnover each tryout season, and I don't expect this year to be any different.  With this said however, I did not see very many U13 girls at State Cup this year who I though would battle for a place on this team.  There may be 1 or 2 of our White team players who will get a look, and I know there are a couple U13 girls who play up at the U14 age level who would stand a decent shot of making this team next year.  However, I have no idea who will be showing up interested come August 7th. 

Tryouts suck, and they're the worst part of youth coaching.  To tell a young player that they just aren't at the level they think they are or want to be at is tough, especially after the year(s) of commitment to this team/club.  However, this comes with the territory in youth athletics, and we are no different than other club teams around the country.  I do hope that girls who don't make our top team stay within the Bangu system, as I believe our White team's development path is far better than many other options in this area.  But I realize that sometimes parents want their kids to play on a "top" team, and if it's not possible in our club, then it may be off to another club to find a top team there.  People make choices.  We can only continue to offer programming that we feel is a solid development opportunity for those who choose to take part.