I guess that June is just too busy a month to
get a Coaches Corner out! Good luck to all teams going to Districts and
States!
1. player evaluations - as in the past, we ask all
head coaches to fill out player evaluations. We will use these
evaluations as part of the team selection process for summer '09. Please
be sure to fill out an evaluation for each player. This is mandatory
for all head coaches and these must be sent to the appropriate director (Chris
Tangen for boys teams, Craig
Bollum for girls teams) by the end of July
(before tryouts). This is a very easy form to fill out and gives
a comprehensive eval of the players. You can
grab the form at http://www.bjb.org/soccer/
2. fall '08 and summer '09 coaches application - As
discussed in the annual meeting, beginning with the fall '08 season we ask all
prospective coaches to fill out a Coaching Application. We will expect to
have an application on file for any head coach planning to participate in
summer '09 team selections in August. An application is not mandatory for
Assistant Coaches, but we would like one as well. The application will
help us learn more about the soccer, coaching and philosophical background of
our coaches. The application form can be filled out now and is available
at: http://spreadsheets.google.
3. coaches/club evaluation survey - Also as discussed
at the annual meeting, we have created an online coach/club evaluation for the
parents to fill out. Information about this survey will be emailed to
parents soon. Please encourage your team parents to fill out this survey.
One of the things we are trying to do is to establish an
"approval rating" for all coaches. We want parents to know that
we are open to feedback and take feedback seriously (but we don't view it
negatively... remember, feedback is a gift). We also fully understand
that not all parents love all coaches. We do not expect coaches to get a
100% approval from the team parents (though that would be nice!).
In the future we will get more rigorous about the "approval
rating" requirements. For now, please ask your team parents to give
us feedback via the survey. Parents do not have to identify
themselves. Coaches will get the aggregate feedback from their team, but
will not know who supplied that feedback. We want to create a safe
atmosphere for both providing and receiving feedback.
4. sign up for fall '08 and summer '09 travel soccer -
online registration is open. Follow the links on www.vusc.org.
5. summer '09 tryouts. The summer '09 tryout
dates have been set. All tryouts will be run by professional evaluators
from the
6. Articles of the Month:
*High School Knee Injuries By Sport And Gender*
Website for full article and links:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/
ScienceDaily (May 23, 2008) -- Knee injuries, among
the most economically costly sports injuries, are the leading cause of high
school sports-related surgeries according to a study conducted at the Center
for Injury Research and Policy (CIRP) of the Research Institute at Nationwide
Children's Hospital and published in the June issue of The American Journal of
Sports Medicine.
The researchers utilized data from the High School RIOTM online injury
surveillance system which collects injury reports for nine high school sports
from certified athletic trainers at 100
The knee was the second most frequently injured body site overall, with boys'
football and wrestling and girls' soccer and basketball recording the highest
rates of knee injury. The most common knee injuries were incomplete ligament
tears, contusions, complete ligament tears, torn cartilage, fractures/dislocations
and muscle tears.
"Knee injuries in high school athletes are a significant area for
concern," said Dawn Comstock, PhD, CIRP principal investigator, faculty
member at The Ohio State University College of Medicine and one of the study authors.
"Knee injuries accounted for nearly 45 percent of all sports
injury-related surgeries in our study. Knee surgeries are often costly
procedures that can require extensive and expensive post-surgery rehabilitation
and can increase risk for early onset osteoarthritis. Without effective
interventions, the burden of knee surgeries and rehabilitation will continue to
escalate as the number of high school athletes continues to grow."
Researchers also found several interesting gender patterns. For example, while
boys had a higher overall rate of knee injury, girls' knee injuries were more
severe. Girls were more likely to miss > 3 weeks of
sports activity (as opposed to <1 week for boys) and were twice as likely to
require surgery. Girls were also found to be twice as likely to incur major
knee injuries as a result of non-contact mechanisms, often involving landing,
jumping or pivoting.
"Parents of young female athletes should not overreact to these findings
however," warned Comstock. "The long term negative health effects of
a sedentary lifestyle far outweigh those of the vast majority of sports
injuries."
The study also identified illegal sports activity as a risk factor for major
knee injury in high school sports. Although illegal play was identified as a
contributing factor in only 5.7 percent of all knee injuries, 20 percent of
knee injuries resulting from illegal play required surgery. This finding
suggests the importance of making it clear to athletes, parents, coaches, and
officials that illegal play has the potential to cause serious injury.
Study authors stressed that monitoring trends through continued surveillance of
high school sports injuries is essential to fully understand the mechanisms
behind major knee injury. "The study of knee injury patterns in high
school athletics is crucial for the development of evidence-based targeted
injury prevention measures," Comstock added. "We know that sports
injury rates can be decreased through such efforts."
Adapted from materials provided by Nationwide Children's Hospital, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Article of the Month:
Fair Play
by Sam Snow, US Youth Soccer
When a hard injury occurs and it is seen by the players that the injured player
or players will not get up then the team with the ball intentionally kicks the
ball out over the touchline. Once the ball is out of play then the referee
may allow onto the field the first aid staff. They may now attend to the
injured player or players. When the match resumes the team taking the throw-in
throws the ball back to the other team's defensive third and they do not
challenge the ball until the other team has the ball under control...
read the full blog posting at http://www.usyouthsoccer.org/
7. Football Patches
http://www.footballpatches.co.
This is way cool. Small ball
patches that can be awarded to players for achievements.