Tuesday, December 3rd - 4 hours

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but Tuesday nights of training are my favorite because Matt, Julio, and Mike are out at the fields training at the same time. The three of them have a wealth of information so it's great how convenient it is to bounce from training to training to pick their brains a little bit about coaching, being a director, and soccer information in general. There is a college showcase tournament coming up soon in Portland, OR so that is a main focus for the high school age groups. I hope the kids realize how awesome it is that they have the resources they do in these coaches. Mike was discussing with his players how important it is to be proactive before the tournament. Even though college scouts will be there, they need to reach out beforehand so that the coaches make a point to attend their games and watch them. Mike is going to send out a college coach communication template and he gave them the task to personalize the letter, check out which colleges will be at the tournament, and make contact by Friday. After introducing themselves, he told them he expects them to follow up by sending the same coaches their tournament schedule by next Tuesday (anticipating that the schedule will be released this weekend).

Talking to the three guys it was mind blowing to hear how, despite the great turnout at the college information night, many of the girls who have expressed interest in playing college did not attend the event last night. They clearly don't understand how important that information is. They also talked about how sad it was to hear how many of the parents are the biggest obstacles for the players going onto the next level. Parents either give their kids too much confidence making them overlook the school's that they would actually be able to play at for the big name schools or the parents want their kids to play in college when the kids don't, killing the love for the game.