New Soccer Season Planning

Regardless if you are new to being a volunteer soccer coach or a veteran the following is a very positive recommendation on getting yourself organized for the soccer season ahead of you. There are differences in coaching a recreational team versus a competitive one but the organizational part is pretty much the same.

The thing to always keep in mind is that a youth soccer team needs the cooperation of all involved. In the development of the team you need the parents as much as the players to be on the same plan. For this reason it is imperative that you decide to assemble a team staff which will facilitate this goal.

Decide on recruiting two assistant coaches from the your parent pool as this will make things easier with the following aspects:

• In most situations you will have a large group of players that you will be training. Having additional trainers on the field will help better manage the players especially with the younger categories.
• We all need to take vacations and in an effort to keep continuity on the training program you planned for the season, having additional help will serve this very well.
• Managing game play behind the bench becomes a lot easier. As you direct the team on the field the one assistant can manage the player substations  The other assistant can manage keeping  order on the bench as younger players struggle with paying attention to a game even one that they are participating in. Believe me game bench management is really challenging when you are doing alone.
• One of the soccer positions that gets the least amount of training would be the goalie. You can have one of your assistants work out a goalie training program that will be used during the soccer season. This is in addition to any training for goalies offered by the soccer club your team is affiliated to.
• Note that your soccer club may not support three coaches behind the bench in which case you should still have that second assistant on the field during soccer practices regardless.

Decide on a parent team manager because there will be off field tasks that you can find a little overwhelming and hence because of time constraints you may not do very well. A team manager is a good idea as they can take care of items such as:

• Fund raiding activities if any are decided to be done by the team and the parents. They can take on the responsibility to get this organized thereby minimizing your participation with this some times much needed activity.
• The team manager can be given the task to get all the paper work done for tournaments that you plan the team to participate in. There will be registration fees to collect, travel permits to obtain from the soccer association and preparation of  the roster and game sheets that will be used within the tournament.
• You can even make use of the team manager to take care of the team registration to your soccer association so that the parents can get a full service as opposed to having to visit the soccer association individually. This will usually occur to already established soccer teams where you know the majority if not the entire team will register for the next season.
•  For the younger soccer teams the team manager can also take care of the parent snack schedule for both the practices and the games. This is a rotation of healthy snacks that are brought to the team for them to enjoy after a good training session or game.
• The team manager can also be you resource to acquire additional team equipment either from the soccer club, loans, or purchased if needed. They can take the responsibility of the team uniform gathering and distribution. In most cases this one is usually done by you, the head coach, as there will  be special playaer requests for particular jersey numbers from your players.

Getting organized should be your first step to making this experience fun and not overwhelming. Keeping your perspective is most important as it is going to be a fun and fulfilling venture for you and the people you will be leading. Sharpen up your communication skills because in the planning phase you will need to define how you will be as transparent with your parents as you can be. It goes a long way if you adapt this mind set and makes the experience a lot more enjoyable.

What do you think? Does these recommendations make sense to you? How do you handle your team management?