JLYSSL Fall Tournament

The JLYSSL Fall Tournament was held on November15th and 16th to bring an end to the fall soccer league. The tournament features class IV teams from U10 to U14 in age, both boys and girls. Over 125 teams from U10 to U14 participated in the event which was held under magnificent November weather. No rain out worries this year.

Congratulations to the 1st and 2nd Place Winners in the 2008 JLYSSL End of Season Tournament!

The Oakland SC Takes Both spots in 14 Boys Gold!
U14B Gold Flight
1st Place - OSC Tigritos
2nd Place - OSC Juventos

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Referees of Year

Many thanks go out to all of the JLYSSL referees this fall. We had the best coverage we have had in years thanks to your help out on the pitch. In fact this year we had almost 60% less games not covered than last year. Yes in a perfect world we would have every single game covered with a referee but the reality is there an awful lot of games each season.

This league does a terrific job of providing soccer playing opportunity to youth in our community. Over 7000 players and hundreds of teams. It is huge effort to get game on fields and referees to manage them. But it gets done due to the terrific hard work of the referee coordinators and the refs themselves who come out to make the games safe for our kids.

JLYSSL Referees of the Year

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U6-U8 Coaches and Player Academy Program by Glenn VanStraatum

JLYSSL is pleased to announce a fantastic new addition to our youth soccer program in 2009. Recently the league approved funding to begin a U8 Soccer Training Academy program which will commence in Spring 2009. League Coaching Director Glenn Van Straatum has put together a training program that will for the first time provide key soccer skills training to our youngest players in our organization. In the past our U8 programs did not have the benefit of professional trainers who can establish the core skills in young players so they can have more fun when they play the game of soccer.

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Success In Soccer by Kim Yokers

In my journeys through youth club soccer, ODP, High School Soccer, College Soccer at Cal, U21 National Team camps, to present day endeavors and hopes to play professional soccer, I have seen plenty of obstacles and have experienced plenty of joys in playing the game, as anyone would expect. I have heard peers describe their relationship with playing soccer as similar to a relationship with a person, and I understand this comparison in my own experiences. As with seeking success in any avenue, there is a road that involves love, commitment, teamwork, perseverance, having expectations, letting go of expectations, balance, passion, and so forth. This has been my experience. Without fear of sounding colloquial, I will say...

Soccer has taught me a lot about life
And Life has taught me a lot about soccer

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Green Laces

Here is the recipe. Take equal parts youthful enthusiasm, high quality soccer skills, a good education, and an opportunity to give back to the world and you have the seeds for Green Laces. Natalie Spilger has stirred this combination together and putting it on the table for athletes around the globe to try.

She was a Parade magazine all-American soccer player in high school. Then she went on to Stanford where she played on their top flight college team. She was a four-year starter at Stanford.

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Been There Done That by Mark Grody

When trying to inspire our players, coaches will stay very energetically say:
You can do it, keep going, great job, almost, try again, etc. These energetic ruminations help keep players moving toward their goals by providing a positive and consistent emotional base from which players can work from. Yet, another technique that I find effective is giving personal examples for my players.  And, these do not have to just be positive memories of glories and successes past like, "I worked toward a goal and ran sprints every day for three months and made the team!"

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JLYSSL Coaches and Referee Tournament

On Saturday Dec 6, the Jack London Youth Soccer Sports League held its annual tournament for coaches hosted at the Alameda Point fields by Piedmont Youth Soccer Club and the Bay Oaks Soccer Club. Co-coordinators Michael Lee and Glenn van Straatum of the two clubs worked hard this year to make this event a success and an estimated 160 players comprising 10 teams turned out to do friendly battle on the playing field. Divided into two separate championships – a competitive championship and a recreational championship, two teams each from Piedmont, Oakland (with Grass Valley coaches invited), Montclair and Rockridge soccer clubs and one team from Alameda and Bay Oaks soccer clubs played a total of 12 60-minute games to decide who would carry away the bragging rights for 2008 in the two categories.

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Changing the Culture: Coach Education - by Peter Hayton

What I try to do, is create an environment in which it’s possible to succeed. Football is a constant education. I present ideas, not mandates, and try to take advantage of the good people we have. A good coach has to constantly adjust.
George Seifert, American football coach

A coach will always be at the center of change. We have already seen a significant change occurring within our club from the traditional “technocratic” coach, who according to Gyr (1998) “has a mechanistic view of the game and sees players as part of a machine. They simply direct players in an orderly, systemized way” to a more modern “holistic” coach who will do all of the above, but will also work on the psyche of the players and send out a team whose play involves commitment, intelligence and control. Holes in the team’s mental strength will be treated with equal importance to a weakness in technical ability.
These changes have been initiated as part of our coach education program and reinforced at our monthly coaching clinics.

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