Wednesday, November 6th - 4 hours

Discussed an end of season summary email with Mike. I reached out to coaches to get feedback about what they felt went well this season and what improvements they hope to make going forward. Mike is hoping that most of the coaches, especially those at the very young ages, talk about successes that have nothing to do with skills. He's hoping for comments on growth, confidence, having fun, and players feeling proud of their accomplishments. Score is honestly irrelevant at the younger level. What's more important is small victories like a six-year-old using "sideways-forwards" that they learned in STEP in a game situation. As he was talking, it reminded me of my first year coaching when one of the parents was filming their child and I happen to be in it and got so excited about "Three passes! We just connected three passes!" They liked it so much they sent it to the directors. That was a big "ah-ha" moment for me of what parents actually want from coaches.

Mike and I also had a discussion of why "community" is important. Retention is important to the club. That begins and ends with players and parents alike feeling like they belong and are valued. Victories are always OUR victories, there's always area where WE can improve, and EVERYONE has a role in contributing to success. I think this is one thing that the directors do well is communicating this. Since I've been working on the social media platform now, I've been trying to mimic other clubs that I follow that celebrate off the field successes of both current and previous players and life moments of players outside soccer. I think this plays a big role in the community feeling. The tough part is not knowing all of the alumni players since only a few have graduated that I've worked with so I need to be sure to communicate that this is an area I need help. If one of the directors or coaches sees something, I would appreciate if they would send me the post or share the information so I can pass that along to the social media audience.