Team

Annual Cycle

Each annual cycle (Jun 1st to May 31st) has about 6 months of highly structured activity and about 6 months of less structured.  We’ll be playing ~30 league and tournament matches per year plus the opportunity to play indoors, Fives and friendlies.

Depending on the team’s level of play, we may have the opportunity to look at USYS State Cup or USYS Presidents Cup which would likely add 3-5 additional matches.  I don’t envision going beyond 40 matches in any 12 month cycle.

Summer Activities

• Jun:  Fives starting in early June (one weeknight each week), Summer Skills Sessions (run by Coach Dave on Sunday afternoons or evenings)
• Jul:  Fives, Fives Tournament (weekend), Team Camp (potential activity held in late July), Summer Skills Sessions
• Aug:  Start mandatory 3x per week practices at the beginning of Aug, 5 night mini-camp culminating in Family Night, potential for Bear Peak / South Boulder Peak Challenge (weekend)
• Various:  Individual Camps, C.A.R.A. Track & Field, Other (come back to practice fit!)
• See also the “Off Season” section on the Practice page.

Fall Season

• Aug:  Broomfield Shootout held early August; 4 matches
• Sep:  Attend a High School Prestige team match
• Oct:  Trebol’s Colorado Shootout -or- Vail Valley Cup; both are held the same weekend in early October; 3-4 matches
• Aug to end of Oct (roughly):  9-10 league matches starting weekend before Labor Day and will include a double header weekend at some point; we’ll have a match film night at some point in the fall as well

Winter Activities

• Nov / Dec:  Optional 1st Indoor Session (soccer -or- futsal)
• Jan / Feb:  Optional 2nd Indoor Session (soccer -or- futsal), mandatory practices 1 to 2x a week Jan thru Feb, potential for a few weekend friendlies
• Other activities to keep fit:  Impact Sports, GO Soccer, Basketball, Skiing, Ice Hockey, Other (come back to practice fit!)

Spring Season

• Mar:  Start mandatory 3x per week practices beginning of Mar, potential for a few weekend friendlies
• Mar thru end of May:  9-10 league matches and will likely include two double header weekends
• May:  Attend the Broomfield HS vs Legacy HS Girls Soccer Match (Broomfield Derby)
• May (Memorial Day Weekend):  Stenger Invitational -or- Real Colorado Cup (most likely) -or- Glenwood Springs Invitational; 3-4 matches
• Tryouts:  Immediately after Memorial Day Weekend

Tournaments

• As shown above (90% likely)

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Financials

When it comes to costs for things like tournament fees and indoor training time, cost share will be determined based on whether or not something is optional or mandatory:

• Mandatory:  Outdoor tournaments, winter indoor practices and team camps
• Optional:  Winter indoor soccer leagues and futsal leagues, BSC’s Winter Indoor Classic tournament, summer outdoor Fives league

Beyond these items, if the team does decide to do a travel tournament (see “Tournaments” section on the Matches page), obviously the cost of team registration for the tournament and coach travel costs would be “mandatory” while the travel costs for players would fall into “optional” (i.e. if a player cannot go to a travel tournament, they would still be expected to pay their share of the team’s shared costs, but not anything to do with player travel).  In addition, there may be occasions where a guest player is invited to join the team for a tournament.  It’s always been my policy that guest players play for free in exchange for parents giving up their time to help the team.  I expect guest players to rarely come into play as I won’t select a tournament if the super majority of players cannot participate.

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Team Building

Team building means different things to different people.  Over the years, I’ve studied this topic, observed how many coaches approach it and have come to the conclusion that a lot of coaches are mistaking “creating social ties” with “team building”.  During the spring of 2014, I ran across an interesting piece of research which reinforced my own conclusions.  In their paper Team Building for Youth Sport, the authors (Bloom, Loughead & Newin) discuss how team building interventions can improve team chemistry, but only if done properly:

• “Many people are unaware that improper team building activities can result in the development of cliques and the alienation of individuals for various reasons.”
• “Team building is far more complex than going to the movies with teammates or having a team dinner.”

With my own children’s teams, I’ve observed that overtly social activities often cultivate a team environment where players are hesitant to criticize and push one another.  Such an environment also elevates the impact of player movement (both during a season and as part of annual try-outs), creating a situation where change isn’t simply a player moving from one team to another, but rather an emotional situation where a member of a social unit is being removed.

In my view, this isn’t a healthy situation for kids and, as a result, I am not a fan of team activities that are purely social in nature.  If parents want to organize a winter swimming outing or a team pizza party, I won’t prohibit such a function, but certainly won’t be leading the charge.  We will do some team building activities, but they will be less about social interaction and more about creating cohesion.  Referencing again the Team Building for Youth Sport paper, the authors suggest effective team building often involves:

• “intellectual, physical, and emotional problem-solving tasks, as well as a focus on teamwork, organization, communication, and cooperation”

Interestingly, these parameters describe exactly the practice and match environment I attempt to cultivate for my teams, so any additional, “purposeful” team building work we do should only serve to reinforce our day-to-day environment.