NA Soccer Club Member Expectations

Attention all NA Soccer Club parents:
It’s important that you understand some basic requirements that keep our day-to-day operations running at all levels.  A recent post about behavior standards established guidelines to avoid bad situations but neglected some fundamental aspects that make it easier for a coach to run a team.  Please make sure you abide by these requirements with your child on their team:

1. Your coach is teaching skills, not babysitting.  Be sure that you stay at games and practices.  If you cannot, make it clear to the coach who is watching out for your child and that they have your cell phone number, should your child get injured.
2. Your child deserves not to be in harms way.  We have safety guidelines that every child participating in practice or games should be wearing shin guard and soccer cleats, not be wearing jewelry or hard hair clips, and have a bottle of water or something to keep them properly hydrated.
3. Your coach deserves the courtesy of your child’s attendance, or at a minimum, advanced notice of their absence.  We teach teamwork, of which a large part is commitment to their role on the team.  Teams are built assuming 90% attendance.  We do our best to accommodate team changes due to practice schedule conflicts.  We schedule around major holidays and understand that random conflicts arise.  What we ask is that you make a concerted effort to get your child to games and practices on time so that a coach can be effective and your child can learn about commitment to a team and the responsibility to their teammates.

In most cases these guidelines are second nature.  As a coach, I treasure the friends I’ve made that I met as parents of kids on my kids’ teams.  Those friends are a wonderful by-product of people understanding the culture of our club between the lines of these basic rules.  As an administrator I know that without observation of these rules it becomes impossible to keep enough coaches volunteering season after season.

Thanks for participating in the North Allegheny Soccer Club and taking the time and courtesy to make it a fun experience in your family and community life.