Letter from the President

Fall Season Kicks Off

It is with great anticipation we have kicked off the Fall 2007 Soccer Season for nearly 800 children in the Holliston Youth Soccer Association program. This season starts with a renewed philosophy of education, increased involvement at the younger player level and program development geared to educate children on basic soccer skills they will take with them as they progress in the program. HYSA will continue with guidelines presented by the nited States Youth Soccer recommendations as well as Massachusetts Youth Soccer development guidelines. Therefore you will see at the younger ages of clinic through U8 less emphasis on scoring and more emphasis on touches on the ball and players dribbling and passing so that children are developing more soccer skills at an early level. With so many children in the program we certainly could not run this many games without all of our volunteers and coordinators and I thank you all for your dedication and time invested in the program. I also want to highlight a few concerns for you and your families which may be informative to all. Please utilize the HYSA website as a fantastic source of information for programs as well as field and cancellation information. We are trying to update the site on a regular basis as it goes through an upgrade and overhaul, stay tuned for our new look in the near future. ( www.hollistonsoccer.com )

Marshall Street

HYSA developed this wonderful soccer complex to be utilized for the children in town and maintains this property solely through the program. Recently we had a clean up morning at the complex to get it ready for the season and I want to thank all the volunteers that were there that Saturday morning, September 15, 2007, more specifically Tim Messer who is always there with his energy and equipment…Thanks Tim.

Rules of the Complex

I also want to highlight the rules of the complex and make you all aware we need your assistance in enforcing them and they can be found on the sign in front of the turf fields. Please be courteous and clean up after your practices and games and remember there should be no food, gum or animals on the fields. Please do not hang on goals at any field and move them accordingly when asked. During games and practices please be sure that goals are properly secured. As many of you may have heard or read HYSA has been in the process for over one year to try and get water to our grass fields for irrigation purposes only. We have had many on going discussions with the Board of Health and Water Department of Holliston regarding our options to irrigate the fields for proper growth and development while being cost effective. In working through the system we have always maintained safety as a priority in irrigating the fields and assure you HYSA are utilizing expert advice regarding well utilization or town water. HYSA has appropriately tested the well and water from a dormant well on the property and are calculating costs associated with the well and town water. As we get closer to finalizing water selection I assure you we will communicate appropriately our options and decisions regarding safe usage of irrigation water to the fields.

Fundraising

As mentioned above HYSA maintains Marshall Street and all the other soccer equipment found on the remaining town fields such as goals and nets. Our funds go directly to the program for necessary equipment and we utilize three major fundraisers throughout the year to achieve our “Goals”. The raffle calendar currently in place within the program is our single largest fundraiser and I ask full participation from all teams and coordinators. Please try and develop as much interest as you can and return the money and tickets timely to your coach and coordinator and thank you for your participation. Remember there are prizes for who sells the most and the team that sells the most…Good Luck!

Spookerfest

Just a reminder that the intramural tournament planned for Halloween weekend will be on Saturday October 27, 2007 at the Marshall Street complex. This is a tournament style play for all teams in Clinic, U8 and U10 non-travel programs. This one day event is filled with many fun activities; moonwalk, face painting, food, and lots of soccer. More information can be obtained at our website www.hollistonsoccer.com.

Coaching Clinics

Just a reminder our Director of Coaching, Rick Beidleman has organized four fantastic coaching clinics for all coaches and assistant coaches in the program. The first clinic is planned for this Sunday, September 23, 2007 at Marshall Street at 6:00pm to 7:30pm. Come prepared to learn and play. More information regarding Coaches Clinics will be forwarded as the dates draw near. Clinic Program We welcome Stephen Ibbitson to the HYSA community. Stephen took over the Clinic program and has done a fabulous job of coordinating and aligning the newest and youngest members of HYSA. Clinic has over 100 children in the program on Saturdays at Damigella field. At this age, U.S. Soccer recommends there be no goal keepers. Skill development at this age will concentrate on dribbling, receiving, passing and shooting. The field size should be 30 X 30 yards. The 3v3 format provides our youngest players the opportunity to touch and play the ball more often and become more skillful with it. The fewer players on the field, the more possible opportunities the children have to be involved with dribbling. Again, as with any program we cannot be successful without our many volunteers and I thank all the board of directors, registrar, age levelcoordinators, referee coordinators, field coordinators and coaches and parents for there time and effort.

Volunteer Openings

As our volunteers are the backbone to the organization, we are always looking for some energetic people to help out. We currently have openings for a travel coordinator, U-8 coordinator and field coordinator. Please contact me if you are interested in helping out at wregan@mhs-mass.org.

Thank you to Bruce Baldwin

I also want to acknowledge one person who seems to always be around when we need him and we want to thank him especially for his knowledge, dedication and commitment to HYSA as well as serving as our Past President, Bruce Baldwin. Thank you Bruce for all you have done for HYSA and all you continue to do for HYSA, you truly make a difference and we all owe you thanks!

I look forward to seeing you all out on the field and as always have fun, play hard and enjoy.

Wayne A. Regan
President