With a great weekend of weather, the YDA enjoyed a fun weekend of football and put 5 of our playing squads into finals for their brackets:
- U9 Gold Boys-Finalists
- U9 Gold Girls-Finalists
- U9 Girls Academy-Champions
- U9 Girls Academy North-Champions
- U10 Boys Academy-Finalists
Being that we are an Academy system, this is a testament to how hard our players have been working in training. We are really pleased with the steps our players have been taking in their development and are working on having them compete at everything they do. That was evident by our younger players facing older players in their matches and continuing to work hard and compete for the whole match. That is a key aspect of playing sports and it is something we make a point to work on with them. We really strive to instill an attitude in our players that they will compete for the whole match, no matter the circumstances. The goal of matches and tournaments at these ages, is to continue to put players into situations that challenge them and get them out of their comfort zones. This is a continuation of what we do in training. At the youngest age groups, U8-U9 the ball is really considered an enemy to the players as no matter how hard they try, they can not master it. Our goal is to get them to accept the challenge of working at it and that is the goal in matches, to accept the challenges presented. A great example were our U8's and U9 Boys who played against older competiton all weekend but to good steps forward in their emotional development in that they knew the challenge in front of them but still competed hard in every match. We were really pleased with the weekend in that aspect, which is very important.
Our YDA staff:
Keri Thoman,
Patrick Newton,
Laura Stacey,
Kim Sykes,
Jenn Hensley, and
Jackie Obert worked well all weekend, covering 44 matches in total. It was a great opportunity for us to get to know all of our players better and really interesting to see all the different personalities. The staff put a lot of effort and passion into what they do and our players are better off for being around them. Each staff member brings their own unique benefit and experiences in the game to your player. Please come up an introduce yourselves to our staff after match post game talks break up or after training. Sometimes things get hectic but we really want you all to feel you can speak to us when we are done, as we know we have your most precious commodity and that is important that you know us.
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