Alabama Soccer Association Award Winners Announced!

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1 Alabama Soccer Association Award Winners Announced! Coach of the Year - Girls Competitive: Mateo Peral, Hoover SC Coach of the Year - Boys Competitive: Joel Wallace, Homewood SC Coach of the Year - Recreation: Calvin Fletcher, NAU SC Volunteer of the Year: Pamela McGuire Dean, Phenix City Youth Soccer Publix Parent of the Year: Donna Mosholder, Auburn SC TOPSoccer Buddy of the Year: Shawn Marlow, Briarwood SC Award winners will be recognized at our luncheon, held in conjunction with our Annual General Meeting, slated for January 25 th, 2014 at the Hyatt Regency Birmingham, The Wynfrey Hotel ASA State Cup for Division 1 and Division 2 Teams Alabama Soccer would like to wish Good Luck to all teams participating in the State Cup event being held in Decatur, AL November 1-3, 2013 and the FINAL FOUR in Montgomery, AL on November 8-10, 2013!!! Don t forget to order your State Cup shirts and sweatshirts! Division 1 Preorder T-shirts THRU NOVEMBER 1 Division 2 Preorder T-shirts - THRU NOVEMBER 1 Governors Cup Recreation Event Alabama Soccer would like to thank all the teams for their participation in this event being held in Montgomery, AL on November 8-10, 2013 at the beautiful Emory Folmar YMCA Soccer Complex. ASA Adult State Cup

2 Alabama Soccer Association is proud to announce the Adult State Championships will be held, December 14-15, 2013 at the Sicard Hollow Athletic Complex, Vestavia Hills, AL. There will be 3 divisions: Men s Open, Women s Open, and Men s O30. Entry fee is $ per team and application deadline is December 6 th. To register, click here: If you have any questions, please contact ASA Executive Director, Tom Condone. He can be reached at or tom@alsoccer.org RESPECT Campaign "Uniting Against the Ugly Side of Soccer" Kids don t play soccer. Did I get your attention with that statement? Well, it s true. Kids play AT soccer. Soccer is an adult s game- 120 yards long by 80 yards wide with 22 players competing over one object- the ball. Kids come to play at soccer, much like it s their playground. Would it be acceptable for a parent at a playground to scream at the top of their lungs, Come on Johnny! Get across those monkey bars faster! GO, GO, GO down the slide. I said DOWN the slide! What s wrong with you?!? Obviously, not. But too often we hear these types of comments on the soccer fields as our children are trying to enjoy their game experience. As the players get older, they can experience high levels of competitive play. The stakes can increase and so does the pressure that they can feel. However, there are still many opportunities to learn life lessons through sport no matter their level of competition. These lessons can either be negative or positive. I hope that they are positive. Coaches, administrators, referees, and parents have a responsibility to be positive role models for our children. Referees can experience a different type of pressure. Yes, they are paid for their service and they are required to attend courses to receive a license to referee certain levels of play. However, the pay is not glamorous and often a referee is spending time away from his/her family to be involved in the game that they still love. Every year we see too many young referees walk away from the game because of how they are being treated by coaches, players, and spectators. We will never be able to develop great referees if we run them off at the younger ages. Therefore, I d like to call your attention to the RESPECT Campaign. The F.A. (the English Football Association) launched the RESPECT campaign in They created some great resources not only for referees, but also for coaches and parents. I ve posted a link below to one of my favorite videos. If you have a couple of minutes, watch it and share with your team. Have you joined the RESPECT campaign yet? The U.S. Referee Connection website has some resources posted. Check them out here at this link Even our U.S. National Teams have joined the RESPECT campaign. Don t be this parent!

3 Olympic Development Program (ODP) The mission of the Alabama Soccer Association Olympic Development Program is to identify and train the elite player, providing opportunities for these potential region/national players. You will notice some changes to our Olympic Development Program (ODP) for the 2013/2014 season. We have now gone to a scouting system to help identify the best players throughout the state. This year, we will be doing away with the District Trainings in favor of more team training events. At some of these events, we will be offering additional educational opportunities for players and parents with topics such as fitness, nutrition, and psychology. We also hope to bring in speakers about college recruiting. We have also spoke with the USYS Region III ODP Staff and they will be sending part of their Coaching Staff to our Sub-Regional Event in March. The State Coaching Staff is top-notch with many of the best college, club, and high school coaches taking part. There will be a focus on consistency of the same coaches for the whole year and working within the Region III ODP Playing Philosophy. The changes this year will provide an opportunity for Alabama s Elite players to train and play with the best players and coaches. Stay tuned for more updates on ODP or by visiting our website TOPSoccer Each child is unique and has his/her own reasons for wanting to participate in sports. Even though children can be very different from one another, they can all still enjoy the great game of soccer. One of the motto s of US Youth Soccer is that soccer can be The Game For All Kids. Therefore, US Youth Soccer has a program called TOPSoccer. (Watch a short clip about TOPS on vimeo by clicking here US Youth Soccer TOPSoccer (The Outreach Program for Soccer) is a community-based training and team placement program for young athletes with disabilities, organized by youth soccer association volunteers. The program is designed to bring the opportunity of learning and playing soccer to any boy or girl, who has a mental or physical disability. The goal for TOPS is to enable the thousands of young athletes with disabilities to become valued and successful members of the US Youth Soccer family.

4 Here in Alabama, we have some programs that participate in TOPS or have programs very similar to TOPS. Currently, the cities of Huntsville (HFC), Opelika (Crush), and Birmingham (BUSA) have TOPS programs. Opelika s program is called Awesome Goals Soccer. BUSA s program runs on Sunday afternoons at the Sports Blast indoor facility. Taylor Smith is the TOPSoccer Coordinator for the BUSA program. His wife Cindy, along with many other volunteers, helps coordinate the program which serves over 30 TOPSoccer players. Taylor and Cindy helped start the TOPS program in Birmingham. Taylor feels that he has been changed by the program. It is my heart's desire for all children to get the opportunity to participate in a team sport and TOPSoccer is the perfect avenue for this to happen. To us, TOPSoccer means: creating a place for special needs children to have fun, feel part of a team, laugh, smile and feel successful all the while creating a community of support for parents while they watch. I can honestly say that TOPSoccer is one of the high points in my life and I look forward to watching this program continue to grow, Taylor said. Each TOPS player has a Buddy or Sidekick that helps each player stay safe and enjoy the activities and games. The Sidekicks are recognized by their green t-shirts and the huge smiles that they have on their faces. The BUSA program is open to any player or coach, regardless of club affiliation, that is interested in joining. Coach Shawn Marlow, who coaches competitively for the Briarwood Soccer Club, is one of the age group leaders. He gets the players started with rhythmic clapping and fun stretches. His favorite stretch is the muscle man and the TOPS players seem to enjoy it is as well. They then move on to fun, safe exercises where each player has a ball and a Buddy. They then finish with repeating the rhythmic clapping and the fun stretches. Coach Marlow was recently awarded the ASA TOPSoccer Buddy of the Year Award and will be honored at the upcoming ASA Annual General Meeting in January. Coach Marlow said that what he likes about TOPS is that, It brings coaches, players, sidekicks and parents from different clubs together for a common cause. Seeing these kids have a few minutes of joy while learning a new skill gives me a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment. One of my favorite things about TOPSoccer is seeing the look on a parents face when their child gets to participate in a sport for the first time and cheer them on from the sidelines." Sidekicks are often other youth soccer players. Haley Duca, a player for the BUSA 02 Elite Girls Team, is a Sidekick. She likes TOPS because because I get to teach special needs kids how to play soccer. It makes me feel good to see them smiling. I also enjoy meeting new friends." Being a TOPS Buddy or Sidekick is a great way for current players to give back to the beautiful game and to help brighten someone s day. Lynn Pepe is the mother of a TOPS player, Gianna, who had never participated in any buddy-type of youth sport before participating in TOPS. At a recent TOPS event, I watched Gianna and her Sidekick Haley start out on the fringe of the activities. Shy at first, Gianna eventually saw her opportunity to make a break towards the goal. With Haley and mom Lynn at her side, Gianna swiftly kicked the ball into the back of the goal and thrust her arms up into the air and shouted, I scored! It was smiles all around and Gianna kept on scoring goals until it was time to leave. Lynn said, Our local school system tipped us off to this awesome program for special needs

5 children and we are thrilled one of Gianna s best friends from school is participating in the program as well. Gianna s first day there she met a new friend and they began speaking to one another in ASL (American Sign Language) priceless! Thank you TOPSoccer for making this fantastic opportunity available to Gianna and the many other children who are blessed to participate! We hope to increase the awareness of the TOPSoccer program all over the state and across the nation. If you or your club is interested in starting a program, please let me know. Alabama Soccer Association can help your club get started. We also plan to host a TOPSoccer Coaching Course within the next year. If your club already hosts a program like TOPS, I d like to hear more about it and help you get publicity. I m in the process of collecting the numbers of TOPS participants that we currently have here in Alabama. Please let me know if you are conducting a TOPS program. TOPS is one of my favorite soccer programs out there. For many of the players, this is their first experience in youth sports and it can be a positive experience for everyone involved. Hopefully, you ll feel inspired to participate in the TOPSoccer program, or help start one, within your community. Please feel free to reach out to me at zac@alsoccer.org or click the link below for more information. Planning on Traveling to a Tournament? If your team is traveling to an Out-of-State tournament, you must submit a Travel Request in Affinity. Those who go to In-State Tournaments (without any guests) are not required to do so, but may wish to as it will give you a State approved roster. If you take guests then you must always submit the request in Affinity. Your request should be submitted no later than Wednesday the week of the tournament to be sure it will be approved and perhaps earlier as some tournaments require early on-line check in. Instructions for using Affinity for your travel request can be found on our website, in the Team Manager s Handbook under Leagues/General Information and can also be found under Admin/Registrar s Corner. Follow Us on Social Media!!! Alabama Soccer Association 4678 Valleydale Road, Suite 200 Birmingham, AL You are subscribed as: Trish@alsoccer.org. To unsubscribe this address, please click here. To forward this to a friend, please click here.