If you want to sign up to coach for a season, please click here, click "Registration" and select "Coaches for ... " for the coming season. Registering online makes sure your RMA information is current. Prior to the start of the season, we have a Coach Meeting to make sure we have League Directors for each league, and explain how the Club works for new coaches.
The first week or two of the season is taken for practices; for non-travelling teams, practices are done in large groups to give all coaches a chance to see the players before assigning teams, and to emphasize the idea that all players are part of the bigger Club. Before games begin in the new season, the coaches for a given league get together and assign players to teams. For those of you new to the system, the procedure is this:
Coaches in a League (U6, U8, U10, etc Boys and Girls) remove the registration for their son or daughter, if the coach wishes to coach his/her child. Together they then sort through the remaining registrations for that League, dividing them into teams. Coaches make an effort to balance the teams by age and ability; after all, it's the coaches who know individual player's abilities better than anyone.
After teams are allocated, they are randomly assigned to coaches. This step ensures that coaches make their best effort to balance the teams; deliberately stacking a team will likely work to a coach's disadvantage, since they probably won't end up coaching that team.
This process is administered by a League Director. Coaches should address subsequent issues or questions with the season to their League Director (see the Volunteer page), or to the Coaching Director.
The remainder of the season is spent playing games. A game schedule is posted at the Fields and on this website; coaches are responsible for getting required information to their players.
We use North County Youth Soccer Association rules, which are FIFA rules with a few modifications. The FIFA Laws of the Game are available here. You can view and download the North County modifications here.
The Club is making a big push to raise the bar on coaching. We all want to achieve the same ends: to create an environment for the players that teaches the values of teamwork, individual and group excellence in a fun, healthy, challenging way. The coaches are the biggest factor in making this work. To that end, the Club spends time and energy showing coaches how to make this happen with their team. We have a number of highly-certified experienced coaches who know how to make this work, and a number of resources available to help out.
First off, there are Coaching Clinics (follow the link for more info). We have in-house clinics, we invite off-Island trainers to give clinics, and there are many clinics offered nearby. Click here for more info. If you're new to coaching, or you've plateaued (platoed?) out and are wondering how you're going to continue on with your kid's team; if you've experienced problems with kids or parents and feel unsure how to best deal with them; if you feel like you're doing all this on your own, and need some collegial input, there's a clinic for you.
At the start of the season, the younger players in each league work together for two weeks before splitting up into teams. Group practices are run by the League Director, and coaches are invited to assist or observe. This is an opportunity to learn what the Club thinks is important for players at that level and how to teach it, by watching and doing, before being thrown onto the field with a team that you're expected to coach for a season.
Whidbey Island Youth Soccer has made a complete online coaching course available to our U6-U11 coaches, and it's especially oriented toward those of us who are easing into coaching for the first or second season. The course includes complete practice plans, with drills and games fully illustrated and explained and a good explanation of what you're trying to achieve with each practice and what to look for.
The course is available at http://www.bytesizecoaching.com. You'll need a userID and password; email me and I'll reply with the necessary.
This is a great course! If you're looking for good information on how to coach soccer and all you've found are books of drills with no information about how to use them, this is the place for you! Check it out.
In the Spring '04 season, we held a couple of simple clinics for U6/U8 coaches and their new teams to help bring them up to speed on how and what to coach younger players. The written materials for those clinics include:
Click the links to view the materials; you are of course welcome to use them in your own practices. If you have suggestions for this page, please email me.
Updates from WSYSA regarding State Tournaments are here.
Click here for a clear elucidation of the offside rule. The narrator is a little lectury, but hey :)