What the change does mean is that the Club is investing in hiring professional coaches to be slated as the Head Coach for both the Girls and Boys 3rd Grade A Teams next spring! The professional coaches will take on the role of the top slated coach for each team: educate themselves on the current group of 3rd graders, attend tryouts, and guide the selection meeting to assemble the team for the Spring 2022 season.
Two of our parent volunteers will be selected as Assistant Coaches for each team to work alongside the professionals who will be expected to help develop our parent volunteers into potential head coaches for the fall 2022 4th grade A teams. With that said, it is NOT guaranteed that these selected parent volunteer assistant coaches would automatically take over in the fall as they will once again have to go through the registration and slate process for the fall 2022 season.
As a club, we are excited by the developmental benefits that a program like this can have for the players and coaches involved, and by its potential impact on other areas like our Travel Team Selection Process. No longer will our parent volunteers be responsible for the final selection of our first travel teams. The professional coaches will work with our Director of Coaching to finalize rosters following our annual team selection meetings where all our coaches will continue to have the opportunity to speak to the level of the players in the grade.
For the Fall of 2022, as usual, two 4th grade teams will be selected for each gender. Volunteer coaches will take over the 4th Grade A team, with the professional coaches having significant input and recommendations on the selection of both the 4th Grade A and the newly formed B team.
While Needham Soccer Club is very excited about all of the positive benefits that this new program can bring to our members, we ask that everyone be mindful that it will take time for us to figure out how to perfectly implement this developmental plan; nevertheless, we remain confident that it will only add more value to our players and coaches in the seasons to come.