Coach: Andrew Crollard Email: crollaa@live.com
All interested players are encouraged to try out for the UC United boys U14 team. Tryouts will be August 20, 22, and 23 from 5:30 – 7:00 at Pioneer Park. There will be three 90-minute practices weekly at the Island City LDS Church field. Games will be played on weekends in Pasco or Walla Walla, WA.
Coach Andrew’s objective is to provide players the necessary training to be successful at the high school level. While winning now is certainly a bonus, the focus is more on developing the skills necessary to compete at a higher level. As we experienced in the spring season, a concentration on proper technique, communication, and movement early in the season saw us finish strong – winning three of four and scoring 13 goals in those games.
Goals for the fall 2012 season include:
- Continue to develop as human beings. The medium of team sports provides ample opportunity to learn about sportsmanship, responsibility, social skills, and working to reach a goal. During the first week of practice I will ask each player to create and write season goals for themselves; two specific, measureable soccer goals (i.e. learn how to trap from my chest to my feet 90% of the time, learn how to do a double step-over and beat a defender 50% of the time, or pass accurately 75% of the time with the weak foot at 25 yards) and one general life-skill goal (i.e. show up to every practice on time, give my best effort at every practice, or not speak negatively about my teammates).
- Continue to develop technical skills. We can all continuously improve how we receive the ball, our dribbling, and our passing skills. Almost all drills this season will incorporate instruction on at least one technical skill to focus on. Extra emphasis will be put on the all-important first touch and positioning oneself to receive the ball.
- Introduce and/or further develop verbal and nonverbal communication. Communication is one of the easiest ways to turn a group of individual players into a cohesive working unit. Verbal communication will be paired with both technical and tactical drills so players will be able to recognize and execute solutions to common problems players encounter in soccer.
- Learn how to recognize and utilize “numbers up” situations. The game can generally be broken into isolated situations where the team has a numerical advantage on either offense or defense in a specific part of the field. Recognizing these situations and understanding the tactics of how to win back the ball or create an opportunity on goal will result in more cohesive team play and increased chance of a victory.
If you have any questions, you can email Andrew at crollaa@live.com