Soccer Week 3

It looks like we finally have a nice forecast for soccer this weekend! Please review the following schedule for teams/groups this week. A few other odds and ends:

Uniforms: Most of the uniforms have been distributed. If you ordered an adult small or medium uniform and did not receive it, we have those and they will be in the sports garage next to the playground.

Release Forms: I still have a few release forms that need to be signed for those who signed up at Information Sunday. I will try to make the rounds during the games this weekend and get those signed.

Thanks again for everyone’s participation and I look forward to a great day on Saturday!

Pre-K/K Schedule:

		Group/Time
	8:30	9:30	10:30
Week 3	2	3	1

First Through Fourth Grade Game Times:

Game 1: 9:00

Game 2: 9:30

Game 3: 10:00

Game 4: 10:30

First/Second Grade Schedule:

			Field 1				Field 2				Field 3
		Team 1		Team 2		Team 1		Team 2		Team 1		Team 2
Week 3	Game 1	5	v	1		2	v	3		6	v	4
26-Sep	Game 2	1	v	2		3	v	4		5	v	6
	Game 3	10	v	12		11	v	7		8	v	9
	Game 4	7	v	8		9	v	10		11	v	12

Third/Fourth Grade Schedule:

			Field 4				Field 5
		Team 1		Team 2		Team 1		Team 2
Week 3	Game 1	3	v	7		4	v	8
26-Sep	Game 2	3	v	8		4	v	7
	Game 3	6	v	2		5	v	1
	Game 4	6	v	1		5	v	2

Fifth - Seventh Grade teams will meet at Crescent Park at 9:00.

Game day week 2

I stopped to check the fields and they are in decent enough shape so games are on for today. See everyone in an hour or so. 

3 v 3 Game Rules

As noted in the email on 9/14, below are the general rules for 3 v 3 soccer games. I provided some notes for our league since we do not use formal referees for our games. If there are any questions or clarifications required please let me know. 

3 vs 3 game rules:

Game Coordination/Refereeing: Since the St. Barnabas fall soccer league is purely recreational, there are no referees assigned to games. The coaches are responsible for facilitating the games, calling fouls and keeping the overall flow of the game going. The spirit of the league is to teach the fundamentals of soccer, good sportsmanship and to get some exercise so games should be conducted with those thoughts in mind.

Team size and participation: The games will generally be played 3 v 3 but the coaches can play 4 v 4 to ensure equal playing time for all players during the game. Coaches should work to ensure all kids have an equal opportunity to play.

Game Duration: The game shall consist of two 12-minute halves separated by a three minute halftime period. There are no timeouts and the Game Clock does not stop in 3v3 games. The coaches can agree who will keep time and if the teams will switch sides after half-time. Exact timing and game duration is left to discretion of the coaches.

Substitution: Substitutions may be made during dead-ball situations, regardless of possession. Substitutions should not be made on the fly.

No Offsides, No Slide Tackling: If a player is sliding, no contact is allowed. If a player slides and contact is initiated, a free kick shall be awarded. This does not prevent players from sliding to stop/intercept a ball where contact is not initiated during the slide. Example: a player may slide to save a ball from going out-of-bounds. All other fouls should be called using common sense on the part of the coaches (no pushing, no kicking, etc) and generally follow along with the kids playing fair.

Player Cautions and Ejections (Yellow Cards/Red Cards): The St. Barnabas fall league does not use formal caution or ejection (red or yellow card) rules. Coaches should use their discretion to ensure the games are played fairly and with minimal fouling. Coaches should sub out any players not playing within the bounds of fair play and review the player conduct before putting them back in the game.

Kick Off: Will be taken from the center of the field and can go in any direction.

Five Yard Rule: In all dead-ball situations, defending players must stand at least five yards away from the ball. If the defensive player’s goal is closer than five yards, the ball shall be played five yards from the goal box in line with the direction of play prior to the penalty.

Direct & Indirect Kicks: All dead-ball kicks (kick-ins, kick-offs, free kicks) are indirect with the exception of corner kicks.

Kick-Ins: The ball shall be kicked into play from the sideline instead of thrown in. The ball is considered in play when the ball is touched and moves one full rotation.

Goal Kicks and Corner Kicks: Goal kicks may be taken from any point of the end line. If a ball goes over the end line was last touched by the offensive team, the defending team plays the ball in with a goal kick. If a ball goes over the end line was last touched by the defensive team, the offensive team plays the ball in with a corner kick.

Week 1 Wrap Up/Week 2 Schedule

Thanks to everyone for helping to make a rainy Saturday morning a successful start to fall soccer. Especially to the coaches who jumped right in and got the games going and to the parents who helped get the shirts distributed and getting the release forms signed. Your help is very much appreciated!
 
There are still some shirts that we will hand out next week and some release forms to sign and I will follow up with a note requesting help from parents to finish up those tasks, hopefully without a downpour slowing things up.
 
In the spirit of continuous learning, I also learned a lot after one week and had a few great suggestions from parents and coaches. One was to provide some more rules about how to run the 3v3 games for the First/Second and Third/Fourth grade teams so that the games are being played consistently. I will put something together and post it on the blog site. I will also be reaching out to the PreK/K coaches and assistants as the little ones probably need a little more direction than I realized.
 
The week 2 schedule is as follows. Please note the time changes for your team this week:
 
PreK/K:

	Group/Time:
	8:30	9:30	10:30
Week 2	3 (Red)	1 (Blue)	2 (Green)

 
 

For First/Second and Third/Fourth game times as follows:

Game 1: 9

Game 2: 9:30

Game 3: 10

Game 4: 10:30

First/Second:

			Field 1				Field 2				Field 3
		Team 1		Team 2		Team 1		Team 2		Team 1		Team 2
Week 2	Game 1	12	v	7		11	v	9		10	v	8
19-Sep	Game 2	12	v	9		11	v	8		10	v	7
	Game 3	6	v	1		5	v	3		4	v	2
	Game 4	6	v	2		5	v	4		3	v	1

 
 
 
Third/Fourth:

			Field 4				Field 5
		Team 1		Team 2		Team 1		Team 2
Week 2	Game 1	5	v	8		6	v	7
19-Sep	Game 2	5	v	6		7	v	8
	Game 3	1	v	4		2	v	3
	Game 4	1	v	3		2	v	4

Game Day

It is a rainy morning and there is a fall chill in the air but the fields are playable and it looks like the rain just might clear up within the hour. So dress warm and bring your rain coats and let's get some games in this morning!

PreK/K Group 1 please head over at or slightly before 8:30 to pick up uniforms and help with field setup. The first/second and third/fourth groups will meet a little before 9.

We will continue to watch the radar and will post additional updates if the later sessions are cancelled. If there are no updates, then all games are on. We look forward to seeing everyone this morning!

Soccer - Week 1

One day until soccer! A few last minute reminders:

• Fall is in the air so make sure to dress warm. We erred on the side of ordering uniforms on the large size so they should fit over sweatshirts.
• For game day weather updates I will post an update on this site. Please check the site if the weather looks questionable. Please note that with a 6 week season we will err on the side of playing. So on a day like today (Friday the 11th) we would play. Dress for the weather!
• We also have more than enough soccer balls from past sessions so no need to BYO. Just bring yourself, your student and your enthusiasm! 
• Please arrive about 15 to 20 minutes early tomorrow for uniform distribution and to assist with field and equipment setup. There are plenty of goals and nets but we may need a little time to get them all properly set up. I have also not had a chance to line the fields so we will just mark them off with cones.
• Also make sure to check your team roster and schedule before heading over. 

Please reach out if there are any last minute questions. Thanks and I look forward to meeting everyone tomorrow!

St. Barnabas Fall Soccer General Information

The most important program information was in the previous two posts but I wanted to provide some additional information to answer questions that might come up. Feel free to email me or your team's coach if you have any specific questions that are not noted below. Other FAQ's will be updated as they come in.

General Information:

• Each participant will receive a soccer uniform in their team's color (t-shirts). Each participant need to provide their own shorts, socks, shoes and shin guards. All kids are required to wear shin guards to participate. Soccer cleats are encouraged but are not required.
• We will have goals, balls, cones, etc ready for the games on Saturday. Pre-K/K kids should bring a size 3 ball for their own use if available. There will be balls available in case you don't bring one with you. The other programs will have balls provided for the games.
• Treats, drinks, etc are at the discretion of the individual teams. All participants should bring water with them.
• Teams can keep score during the individual games but I’m not going to collect scores or do any sort of league tracking. Scores will be left up to the teams for weekend bragging rights but then immediately forgotten.
• For day of information (especially related to weather) I will post an update on this site so please check the site if there is the weather looks questionable. Since the season is so short we will err on the side of playing if it is cold or rainy but will cancel if the conditions are unsafe or if the fields are unplayable.

Pre-K/K Program Information:

• The Pre-K/K program does not have formal teams but has the kids broken into 3 evenly sized groups. The kids will have skill-games for the first half of practice before breaking up into smaller groups for 3 v 3 or 4 v 4 games.
• The groups will meet for 1 hour each week with the first group starting at 8:30 and the last 10:30, all ending by 11:30.

First/Second and Third/Fourth Grade Program Information:

• Each team has 7-8 kids. I kept teams small so to maximize playing time with the 3 v 3 format.
• It will be up to the coaches each week if they would like to play 3 v 3 or 4 v 4. With teams with 8 participants, 4 v 4 would allow more play time for each player.
• An attempt was made to balance teams with a number of kids equally distributed by grade and gender. Siblings were kept together together in each given grade grouping. Given an uneven distribution of boys and girls per age some teams may have an uneven split compared to other teams. Other than age and gender, the team distribution is random.
• The schedule has the teams split across 3 fields for the 1st/2nd and 2 fields for 3rd/ 4th. Half of the teams will start at 9 and the other half start at 10. All games will be complete by 11. See the previous post for details on game times for individual teams.

Fifth/Sixth/Seventh Grade Program Information:

• There are 20 participants in this program and they will be split into 2 evenly sized teams. 
• The teams will meet at Crescent Park at 9am each week.

Fall Soccer Schedules and Field Setup

Below is an update with the field setups and schedules per team. For team assignments please see the previous post from 9/5. This post has important information for the entire 6 week schedule.

The 5th/6th/7th grade teams will be meeting at playing at Crescent Park at 9:00 AM each Saturday. All other teams will be meeting on the fields next to and behind the convent at St. Barnabas.

The Pre-K and K program has the participants split into 3 groups. All participants in each age group will arrive at 8:30, 9:30 or 10:30 each week. The program will consist of soccer skill-building drills for the first 30 minutes, followed by 30 minutes of 3 v 3 or 4 v 4 games. Parents who volunteered to be an assistant coach are encouraged to help on the field with the drills and to help facilitate the games after the skill drills.

The First/Second and Third/Fourth program will consist of 2 games for each team each weekend. The games will start at 9 and be completed by 11:00. The timing for the games and schedules for the First/Second and Third/Fourth age groups are below.

Game 1: 9:00
Game 2: 9:30
Game 3: 10:00
Game 4: 10:30