Spring season practices start the week of February 6th and run through Thursday, May 18th. Our spring practice schedule is much like our schedule from this past fall. Our Quest Park field has changed from field 8 to field 7 (where we practiced at the end of the fall), otherwise the days, times and locations are the same.
| Day | Location | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Mondays (Starting Feb. 6) | Quest field 7 | 5:30 - 6:45 PM |
| Tuesdays (Starting Feb. 7) | Metro TOPS field | 5:00 - 6:15 PM |
| Wednesdays (Starting Feb. 8) | Quest field 7 | 5:30 - 6:45 PM optional goalkeeper training, 6:55 - 7:30 (GK training starts Feb. 22) |
| Thursdays (Starting Feb. 9) | Metro TOPS field | 5:00 - 6:15 PM optional goalkeeper training, 6:25 - 7:00 (GK training starts Feb. 23) |
- Before we get started, please take 5-10 minutes with your daughter to review our practice session guidelines: what to wear (and what not wear, for example, earrings and jewelry), what to bring, and so forth.
- Please label warm-ups: We ask each family to take a few minutes to label their daughter’s warm-up jacket and pants. We recommend using a Sharpie to note your daughter’s initials and uniform number on internal tags / labels. This will prevent needless lost and found angst.
Which / how many practices to attend?
We ask the girls to attend two sessions each week. For most players, these will be the two sessions at their home park. If a player has a schedule conflict with a session at her home park, she’s welcome to attend a session at the other park, no reservation needed. (We’ll make sure she feels welcome!) If a player wants to attend an extra practice, she’s welcome to do so.
Bad weather procedures
Rain itself isn’t a problem, but waterlogged fields, lightning or unsafe driving conditions due to winter storms can cause problems. We generally practice in cold weather as long as the wind chill doesn’t drop below 20 degrees. (Link: tips on cold weather attire). For info about how we deal with bad weather, please check our weather link.
Game day schedule
Our spring game day schedule is 90% complete as of late February. Link: spring 2017 game day schedule
Schedule conflicts:
Please let us know as early as possible about any game day schedule conflicts. (E-mail to Ward is the preferred method.) We can work around most conflicts as long as we know about them by the weekend ahead of the game day.
Other pre-season notes
Quest weather effect:
This note is for players who practice at United Quest Park. During the winter and early spring, temperatures at Quest and Noonday tend to feel 5-10 degrees colder than the true temperature due to the close proximity to Noonday Creek. The girls should dress accordingly. Link: tips on cold weather attire
NTH Presidents’ Day 4v4 Classic (Feb. 20):
Most kids are out of school on Monday, February 20th for the Presidents’ Day holiday. NTH is hosting a 4v4 tournament that day. This is an NTH-wide event, not specific to Junior Academy. It’s an all-day affair at Metro North Park.
The Junior Academy Girls will still practice as usual that night at Quest, but if your daughter wants to play in the 4v4 tournament, she gets a free pass to skip that night’s practice. Link: Presidents’ Day 4v4 Classic details
NTH Winter Break Camp (Feb. 20-23):
NASA Tophat hosts a winter break camp the week of February 20th. This is an NTH-wide event, not specific to Junior Academy. The Junior Academy Girls will still practice as usual that week, but if you’re looking to add some morning soccer during the school break, NTH offers that option. Link: Winter Break Camp details
Tournaments:
We won’t play any 2-day pre-season tournaments. Pending field availability and weather, we may have an informal intra-Academy 1-day tournament in late February.
We currently plan to play in the NASA Tophat Adidas Cup the weekend of May 20-21, 2017. This is a big tournament hosting hundreds of teams from local and other areas, ages U8 up through U19, with each team playing three or more games. This will be our final event of the spring season. We’ll post more tournament info after spring break week.
Depending on the number of U8 entrants, we may roster all of our girls, or only the girls with 2009 birth years. (We’ve found that few Junior Academy or pre-Academy programs at other clubs include 2010 girls.) Link: about tournaments
Birth Certificate / Medical Consent forms:
We still need to collect birth certificates and medical consent forms for some of our players. If you didn’t submit these papers during the summer or fall, please do so in February. Link: registration paperwork