USASA Keeping In Touch | January 2010

In This Issue

Update from USASA President

Candidates' Forum

AGM Reminders

Do you help your community?

National Cups 2010 Set!

USASA at US Open Cup

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Coach's Corner by Aleks Mihailovic

The Recreational Side of Competitive Soccer

Far too often recreational or coed levels are frequently overlooked because of the focus on highly competitive development. USASA is fortunate to have two very effective levels of competition; a level for competitive player and a level for recreational and coed player.

This lesson is geared for recreational and coed players. Read More.

Communications Announcements|Membership Services Updates

Update from USASA President Brooks McCormick

Happy New Year and hopefully this email finds you warm and comfortable during this cold spell. I am writing to further update you on progress made since our Strategic Summit this past October.

As you already know a Governance Taskforce has been appointed and has begun their work. There was also a group appointed to collect and review applications for the Chairs of the eight (8) Implementation Taskforces called for by our Strategic Plan. This group will report its recommendations to the Executive Committee at their meeting next weekend in Philadelphia. Once the chairs are in place we will begin the process of populating the Taskforces so they may get to work.

Referee development for the Adult game was an important focus of the Summit and I am pleased to report that John Motta and the USASA Referee Committee have been working with the US Soccer Referee Department to begin a partnership to establish the goals below with two initiatives already in the works.

First, US Soccer will provide USASA with a list of promising young referees who are ready to work higher level games, we will provide this list to the States to make sure they are working Adult leagues and receiving appropriate mentoring. From this list approximately 16 referees will be invited to work Regional Cup tournaments and from that list 12 will be invited to National Cup Finals. US Soccer will provide Staff Inspectors to the finals and appropriate Inspectors for the regional events. Most importantly Adult soccer will be a step in the progression from youth soccer to the professional game; we will again be a priority.

Second, US Soccer and USASA will jointly develop a curriculum for the transition from youth games to the adult game. This will be available to State Associations to teach at adult tournaments, state cup tournaments, and other appropriate events. This program holds great promise in developing successful referees for out adult games. Much thanks to John and his committee for their proactive efforts to help with implementing our plan.

Two of our most debated services have been insurance and online registration, I would like to update you on progress in these two areas. An ad-hoc insurance committee, Read More.

USASA Announces Candidates' Forum For 2010 AGM in New Orleans

USASA will hold its first-ever Candidates' Forum at the US Soccer's AGM in New Orleans. The forum will allow the membership to ask individuals questions in order to get to know the candidates and where they stand on current USASA issues in a group setting.

In order to help the flow of the forum we encourage the membership to submit (attending or not) questions ahead of time to forumquestions@usasa.com so that we can consolidate similar questions.

The questions should state the position you are directing the question to and if you want the question to be anonymous. If more than one candidate is participating, we will alternate which candidate answers first. We will limit the response time to allow as many questions to be asked as possible.

Dan Trainor will be moderating the forum on Thursday, February 4, 8:00 PM - 10:00 PM.

USASA will hold elections this coming February for the following:

President
Secretary
Member at Large
Region I Director
Region III Director
Region II Deputy Director
Region IV Deputy Director

US Soccer's Annual General Meeting Reminders

2010AGM

The AGM is coming up on February 4-7 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Registration is available online through US Soccer. For more details, go to the AGM page here on the USASA web site.

The USASA 2010-2011 proposed budget will be sent to all Association Presidents electronically later this week and it will also be available on the USASA web site under the AGM page.

Recharge Team of the Year Award

Does your team help or service the community you play/live in? If the answer is yes then you should nominate your team for the USASA Recharge Team of the Year Award.

Click here to nominate your team today and to be eligible for the Recharge Team of the Month. Monthly winners will be selected by the national office after gaining approval from the winning team's association. The national winner will be chosen from the 12 monthly winners.

This award is strictly for teams who actively volunteer or promote the game of soccer in their community.

Mark Your Calendar, National Cups Dates Are Set!

The USASA National Cups Committee is pleased to announce the locations and dates for the National Cups 2010. The most prestigious adult tournament in the nation will hold regional finals in the spring and summer. The National finals are scheduled to take place in July at the United German Hungarian Club in Oakford, Pennsylvania.

Region I National Cup Finals will take place at the United German Hungarian Club in Oakford, PA, on June 27, 2010.

Region II Finals will be held on Friday, June 18 through Sunday, June 20 at Gaelic Park, Oak Forest, IL.

Region III National Cup Finals are scheduled for May 28-31, 2010 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Tournament is hosted by the Alabama Adult Soccer and the Tuscaloosa Sports Foundation. Qualifying teams will play at the University of Alabama's recreational center.

Region IV Finals will take place at Cherry Island Complex in Sacramento, California. The Men's Open will be on May 14-16, 2010 and the Men's Amateur, Over 30, Men's and Women's Under 23 and the Women's Cup will be on June 4-6, 2010.

The USASA National Cup Finals will be played on July 30 - August 1, 2010. The three-day national championship will, Read More.

Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup & USASA Qualifying

U.S. Open Cup rounds of qualifications began for USASA's Region I and II in October 2009.

Entries for the 2010 Region I Finals include Eastern New York's Pancyprian Freedoms (2008 USASA National Open Cup Champions), Phoenix SC (Eastern Pennsylvania), and the 2009 National Open Cup Finalists Emigrantes Das Ilhas (Massachusetts). The teams will fight for a berth in the National Cup Finals and the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup this summer.

In Region II news, Milwaukee Kickers (Wisconsin) advanced to the USASA Region II Finals after defeating the Bavarians SC (Wisconsin) 3-1. Rivals AAC Eagles (Illinois) and RWB Adria played in November 2009 to determine Illinois' Champion. The Eagles won the 2010 title over RWB Adria with a 2-0 outcome.

Region III and IV will start their rounds of qualifications this spring.

The two finalists of each of the four USASA regions qualify for the 2010 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.

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