Important Items on the Calendar: Lifting: Beginning with our first summer practice on May 30th we will lift as a part of our practice time we will continue this all summer. During the season, Freshman and JV players will lift a minimum of three times per week as a part of their practice time. Maximizing our potential through diligent work in the weight room is going to be a critical component of our success as a team and of the development of our young players! Spring Camp: These full practice sessions are optional for incoming freshman students; however, any incoming 9 th graders interested in football are more than welcome to attend! We will meet in the classroom to install the playbook, practice on the field to go over what we learned, and build foundational football skills and techniques. Coach Petersen (our defensive coordinator) will not be able to be there because of responsibilities with his teaching job, so we will focus more on offensive scheme and technique for these four practices. The base schedule will be as follows: -3:20-3:50 PM: Classroom meetings -4:00-5:20 PM: On-field practice -5:30-6:10 PM: Lift for those who need it (10-12 grade players only) Parent Meeting: We will meet on Tuesday, May 15 for our pre-season parent meeting at Valley from 6:15-7:30 PM. More details to come on the room we will meet in. Please let me know if you have questions you would like addressed during our time together! Summer Practice: These will be full practice sessions with similar components as the spring practices. All players, grades 9-12, will practice at the same time. Practices will be held on either the Valley Christian baseball field or football field pending the day. The base schedule will be as follows: -6:30-8:00 AM: On-field practice -8:10-8:50 AM: Skill players lift while Bigs meet/walk through -8:50-9:30 AM: Bigs lift while Skill players meet/walk through Frosh Review sessions 5/31-6/1: Following our first three summer practices, all 9 th grade players are encouraged to stay for an extra hour of new player review, walk thru, classroom time, and additional practice. This will be time in which the coaching staff will be focused on only freshman and making them feel comfortable in the program while catching them up to speed. These sessions will be from 9:30-10:30 AM. June 4-7 Valley Basketball camp: All football/basketball dual-sport athletes should talk with both Coach Haagsma and Coach Sundberg to determine the best balance of football and basketball for this week.
7 on 7 tournament and Big Man Challenge at NAU June 9: Because of space in the tournament, this will be for varsity athletes only. In the event that a few JV or freshman athletes earn varsity time more information will be provided as we get closer. Small School 7 on 7 and Big Man Challenge June 15: This tournament is being hosted by Joy Christian and being held at the Glendale Youth Sports Complex. The tournament is specifically for small schools 1A through 3A and we will be taking both a Frosh/JV and Varsity team in addition to any linemen who would like to participate. Games start at 8:00 AM and we are guaranteed at least 4 games for each team. PM 7 on 7?: This is on a few Tuesdays and Thursday in June. Our hope would be to compete with one or two other schools in a 7 on 7 competition in the evening on these days. We are still in the process of getting these set up with other schools, but wanted it to be on your radar. Obviously we will communicate specifics once we have them. Team Service Project June 19: We will begin together at 7:00 AM and get a great lift in as a team to start the day. Then, from around 8:00-2:00 we will be participating in a service project in the Phoenix area as a program. It is critical that we get beyond ourselves and learn the skills of selflessness and service, so we are going to trade a day of football practice to serve together. More details forthcoming but you can save the day and time! Senior Retreat June 21-22: Leadership development trip for seniors only. Frosh and JV players will have no football activities on June 22. Week of June 25-29: We know that many families have trips planned for this time that is awesome! However, for young men who will be in town there will be four lifting sessions offered at Valley Christian. Dead Week July 2-6: No football activities, this is a great week to plan family trips if you haven t already done so! Team Retreat July 17-19: We will practice Tuesday morning (7/17) as a program and leave immediately afterwards for our team retreat. We will take all 10 th -12 th graders and will return to Valley by Noon on Thursday. This will be a time of team bonding, fun, spiritual development, and vision-casting. There will be no football practice or workouts just team development. More details to follow. **In the interest of helping them integrate into the culture of the team in a positive and intentional way, we will not take incoming 9 th grade players on the team retreat. We will take care to utilize several opportunities during the 5 weeks before our first game to honor, welcome, and incorporate the freshman players into the Valley Christian football culture in a loving, God-honoring way. Week of 7/30-8/3: The calendar indicates that we may do a walk through from 9:30-10:30 AM during this week, right after lifting and meeting. This is in lieu of traditional two-a-day practices. The need to conduct these extra walk-through sessions will depend on how we are progressing schematically. We will communicate in the weeks leading up to this regarding if we will indeed hold the walk through sessions.