COACHES MEMO - No. 806

August 20, 2010

To: Coaches, players, and parents of

CFYSC and Dynamos teams

From: Olivier Finidori, Director of Training

Written and edited by Jim Walker

HOT START FOR U16's

The under-16 Dynamos went 1-1-1 in the Aggieland Friendship Cup last weekend, a good opening tournament showing for the girls of Coach Ron Contreras. It was HOT, exclaimed Coach Ron, in fact, he said: "This is the first time I have ever experienced the refs dropping out before the players!! Before our last game started, two of the refs decided they just could not work because of the heat. It was that hot. We started about 45 minutes late because we had to wait for replacements." He added that the tournament games exposed areas needing work, but that "the girls very much seem dedicated to working on those areas. Playing in the tournament were Brianna Brosch, Lauren Contreras, Ryan Garant, Abby Glova, Kara Haymaker, Caiti Haymaker, Monique Hutcheson, Mallory Majewski, Megan Mugavero, Shelby Stephens, Christina Thompson, Hannah Vandermotter, Kelly Weidenheft, Morgan Whisenhunt, Jasmine White, and guest Lynsey Curry.

JUNIOR DYNAMOS

With older teams starting their training schedules this week, the Junior Dynamos aren’t far behind, kicking off their regular sessions on Monday (Aug. 23) for the boys and Tuesday (Aug. 24) for the girls. The Junior Dynamos will be operating on Dyess Park field No. 3, both 5:15-6:30pm. Director of Training Olivier Finidori will meet with parents for brief orientation prior to the first practices. Academy games will begin Sun., Sept. 12. The season will include nine games with a break at Halloween. The early part of the campaign will be played at Dyess Park, the latter part at Bear Branch in The Woodlands.

KEEPER TRAINING

Keeper Club training for the fall began Thurs. (Aug. 19) and will continue on Mondays (8pm) with Roland Sikinger and Thursdays (5:30pm) with Jim Walker at Dyess Park. In attendance for the opening session were: Kelsi Gibson, Kenzie Peterson, Braden Mann, Cameron Rieth, Aaron Austin, Kacie Paine, Kennedy McGill, Grant Steppe, and Kodi Garcia. Keepers 10 years and older are eligible for the regular training sessions. Fee for specialized training for keepers is $50 for ten weeks of training (two sessions a week are available) or $200 for the full schedule of training from August 16 until early June 2011. Units of training are as follows: August 19-October 14, October 18-December 16, January 10-March 17, March 21-June 2. For more information, email JWalker332@aol.com or call 281-217-1612.

Junior Keepers

After a hiatus of several years, the Junior Keeper program has returned with six players attending the first session on Thursday (Aug. 19). This extra session for junior goalkeepers 8-10 years old, including those playing for Cy-Fair Youth Soccer Club teams is held each Thursday at 6:30pm. Attending the initial session were Macy, Madisen, Jorge, Johnny, Corey, and Jaime, and Coaches Steve Rockey and Jorge Toledo joined the action, too. The young keepers worked on catching and diving, and played 0"Musical Keepers" to improve quickness and diving. Membership fee of $25 for once-a-week training through December 16. For more information email JWalker332@aol.com or call 281-217-1612

THE BUZZ

Hats off to Cy-Fair Youth Soccer Club President Jennifer King, joining new fields director Mike Bradshaw and volunteers Margaret and Russell Sabrsula, Valerie Wolford, Jason King, and Brenda and Charles O’Kilen last Saturday for a work force to line fields, locate and fill divots, and repair goal nets in preparation for the fall season. . .The Dynamos' Sydney Curry has joined big sister Britney at Texas State University, where the Bobcats are favored to win a third consecutive regular-season Southland Conference title. TSU, with Britney leading the way at Southland Player of the Year, has played in three of the last four conference tournament championship matches. Sydney, an all-regionalselection at Cy-Fair HS, will add strength to the Bobcats' midfield. . . David Benner, the big goalkeeper who traveled from Dallas as the featured instructor, had this to say about last week’s Keeper Camp: “It was great fun, and the success of the camp really was due to the kids at the camp. They had a great attitude, and each put in a lot of effort even with the heat. Of course, I really appreciate John (Jonathan Kauffman) the first day, Daniel (Adams) for his two days of hard work, and most of all, Heather (Koudelka) as she has the skill to not miss a beat when we are working the kids.” David donated his fee back to the Dynamos and Keeper Club. . ."Soccer Matters with Glenn Davis" presented by Memorial Hermann Sports Medicine Institute will debut on August 31 from 7-9pm on Sports Talk 790. The show will complement "Dynamo All Access" on Mondays and is sponsored by Memorial Hermann Sports Medicine Institute. "Soccer Matters" is transitioning from the television show on Fox Sports Houston. "Each week," said Glenn, who appeared two weeks ago as a guest at the Dynamos Select Camp, "I will continue to bring you interviews, opinion, insight and reporting. I do rely on you, the fan, as we are partners in this programing which is vital to the growth of the sport.". . .If you have items regarding the Dynamos, the Cy-Fair Youth Soccer Club for the Coaches Memo, or The Buzz, please email to JWalker332@aol.com or call 281-217-1612.

Some serious sweat

Dynamos players troop off the field after team fitness session this week

QUOTABLE

"Next year."--New York Red Bulls coach Hans Backe when asked, after Saturday's 1-0 loss to Los Angeles, when his new Designated Players--Thierry Henry and Rafael Marquez--would be fully integrated into the team.--New York Times

A THOUGHT ON COACHING
Player statistics usually don’t play a big role in soccer as in baseball and other sports, but because of team manager Andrew Naudin, the number of individual passes, tackles, assists, takeaways will be much in evidence for the 95-96 Dynamos this season. “I am just a tech geek, really,” says Andrew, who went so far as to provide a testimonial for StatzSoccer after experimenting with the system last year. Although it has not been published elsewhere yet, The Coaches Memo gets a sneak peak at Andrew’s review of the system: “Dynamos 95-96 Select were looking for a way to track team statistics and analyze those stats post-match to develop their players and help plan training sessions. The team also wanted to track playing time for each individual player to document playing time for the coach, and to communicate this data to the player's parents. Andrew Naudin is the manager of Dynamo 95-96, a Division 2, U15 boys soccer team from Houston, Texas. He came across Statzpack at the end of 2009 and hasn’t looked back. ‘As well as tracking performance measures, a very simple output that the system gives us is a record of the amount of time each player has on the field. It’s calculated automatically. It’s very important for me as a coach, the players and the parents that we have this information and with Statzpack it’s all there for you, you don’t need to manually input the info, no pen and paper, or spreadsheets.’ says coach Andrew.For the 2009-2010 season, Andrew purchased an iPhone and subscribed to StatzSoccer. According to Andrew, Statzsoccer, with it's easy to use interface and ability to customize stats collection based on Dynamo Select 95-96's needs, made it easy to track and share data with individual players and easy to show parents stats and information on their child’s progress as a player. ‘After a few practice sessions with the App,’ said Andrew, ’we quickly became familiar with the user interface. The support team at Statzpack dealt with all our questions, and importantly listened to our ideas for the App. With the data being sent up to the website done in the background, it was pretty cool to see the data build up on the website. We have saved hours with this system.’ Not only does StatzSoccer enable Andrew to track the teams stats live on the field, it also automatically syncs with the Statzpack.com website where the data is presented in charts and tables, making it easier for players and their parents to understand. All the tables and charts are produced for you. With StatzSoccer each individual player can be given a login and the 95-96 Dynamos intend to use this feature next season so that players can log in and see their own stats.“

ANOTHER THOUGHT

To combat the defensive approach teams take in the group stage at the World Cup, FIFA President Sepp Blatter suggested the answer might be eliminating ties and deciding all drawn matches by penalty kicks. "We are considering doing away with ties in the first round ... and also ending overtime," he said in an interview with the German weekly Focus. "If there is no winner at the end of 90 minutes of play, we would proceed directly to penalty kicks." He said another possibility was to use the golden goal--by which the team that scores first in overtime wins. The golden goal was used at the 1998 World Cup.--Paul Kennedy, Soccer America

IT’S ONLY FAIR

Be enormously selective, Coach Cy Fair advises his players, when taking on a professional athlete as a role model. Doesn’t that make the unexpected expected, questioned Coach Flo, when advised that as a coach she should expect the unexpected.

Posted on Saturday, August 21, 2010 (Archive on Saturday, August 28, 2010)
Posted by DynamosSoccer Contributed by DynamosSoccer

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