Coach Corner
Fairhope Soccer is volunteer youth sports league that depends entirely on parent volunteer coaches like yourself. You don’t need to be the best soccer coach or even know that much about the techniques of soccer to be considered the “greatest coach in the world” by your players. You just need to have some time in your busy schedule, patience, ability to teach, good sportsmanship, love to work with kids, and of course, have FUN!
So, did you volunteer, or did you get volunteered? The latter of the two happens quite often. It usually starts with an email from the club saying that they do not have a coach for your child’s team and if they do not get one then they can’t play soccer this season. Whatever way it happened, we are delighted you did. Our goal is to make sure that you have enough materials to make soccer coaching simple and at the same time give the players under your direction a positive experience in the great game of soccer.
Whether or not you volunteered or got volunteered, we truly appreciate all the time, effort and dedication you will giving to the players of Fairhope Soccer Club, but also the great sport of soccer.
Coach Requests: When you sign up to coach/assist, you will be assigned to your child's team. If you want to co-coach with a friend, we will guarantee your players will be on the same team as well as your players. We only allow two friends requests per team.
Coaching connects you with your child and your community—the top reason most parents volunteer is to connect with their child in a new way. In addition, coaching soccer puts you at the forefront of building relationships with other coaches and parents with kids of similar age and gender. As part of your role as coach, you are in consistent contact with many of the parents throughout the season. Many times, lifetime friendships grow between the families on a team.
Volunteer Coach Responsibilities
Have FUN is our number one expectation as well as have encouraging attitude, be a positive role model during practices/games. Respect your players, opponents, the referee and the parents. Always give positive feedback to your players!
Practices:
- Organize practice for about 45 minute practices 1-2 days a week depending on age group/field availability. Practice Guidelines per week per age group:
- U6: 1 practice or 1 game
- U8: 1-2 practices or 1 practice-1 game
- U10 & U13: 2 practices or 1 game-1practice or 2 games
- Be prepared prior to your practices. Make it simple and fun for the age group you are coaching. Download the MOJO app. It's FREE.
- Arrive to practice 10-15 minutes early to gather equipment and set up session.
- Clean up practice area after session, place all equipment and goals back to their original area.
- Player Safety if our first priority! Please remain until a parent/guardian picks up every player.
Game Days:
- Arrive to games at least 15-20 minutes early. We ask that our coaches assist with set up of goals and benches if fields are not set by the time you arrive.
- If unavailable to attend a game days, identify who will be filling in and communicate with parents/players prior to that game.
Communication: Open lines of communication is the key for successes to managing your team. You will receive important information emails from the club during the season especially before Opening Day. Please READ all emails attentively.
- Hold a parent meeting during your first practice—Introduce yourself, your expectations & rules/guidelines for the season. If you were not assigned an assistant coach, feel free to recruit one during this time. Contact FSC Staff if someone is going to help you.
- Set your practice schedule. Please make every effort to stick to a regular practice schedule. We understand things do come up. Make sure to communication any changes to practice/game schedule in a timely manner.
As a coach (admin of team), you can to view and manage your team roster and members, communicate directly with your team and organize your team calendar. Gameday schedule will automatically sync with your team calendar once game day schedules go live.
Other Tasks:
- All coaches/assistants are responsible to complete a background check yearly/risk management documents with Alabama Soccer Association in a timely manner. You will receive an email to complete the above tasks.
- Attend coaching meeting prior to season; review FSC’s rules/regulations