We start spring 2019 practices Monday, February 4th at United Quest Park, and Tuesday, February 5th at Metro North Park. We have the same practice days / times / fields as in the fall. We’ll practice from the week of February 4th through the week of May 13th, with a spring break the week of April 1st.
| Day | Location | Field | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mondays | United Quest Park | UQP field 7 | 5:30 - 6:45 PM |
| Tuesdays | Metro North Park | MNP "TOPS" field | 5:00 - 6:15 PM 6:25 - 7:00 PM optional goalkeeper training (begins March 5) |
| Wednesdays | United Quest Park | UQP field 7 | 5:30 - 6:45 PM 6:55 - 7:30 PM optional goalkeeper training (begins March 6) |
| Thursdays | Metro North Park | MNP "TOPS" field | 5:00 - 6:15 PM |
Pre-season checklist:
- 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 check your daughter’s warm-up gear and make sure her initials and uniform number are marked (and still legible) on internal tags / labels. Warm-up jackets and pants are easily misplaced, but if labeled, they usually find their way home quickly. Please also make sure her backpack, water bottle and ball have IDs.
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 extra practices, she’s welcome to do so.
Bad weather procedures:
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). We often practice in the rain when temperatures are in the 50s or higher. We’ll use our Junior Academy Twitter account and phone hot-line for any late-breaking weather-related schedule changes.
Junior Academy Girls Twitter account: https://twitter.com/nasajracadg
Junior Academy Girls phone hot-line: 1-866-206-9066, ext. 8870
For more info about how we deal with bad weather, please check our weather link.
School winter break (week of Feb. 18):
Some local schools have a winter break the week of February 18th. We plan to keep our regular practice schedule that week.
Spring break (week of April 1):
We typically switch from our regular schedule to a reduced “come if you can” schedule during school spring breaks. We’ll poll families about spring break availability in later March.
Other pre-season notes:
Staying current:
Our communication channels are the same as in the fall. We encourage you to check our web site twice a week now that we’re getting back in season. We’ll use it as our primary communication channel. We’ll use our Junior Academy Twitter account and phone hot-line for any late-breaking weather-related schedule changes.
Junior Academy Girls Twitter account: https://twitter.com/nasajracadg
Junior Academy Girls phone hot-line: 1-866-206-9066, ext. 8870
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. Whatever the weather is at your house, have your daughter dress for 10 degrees colder and she’ll be prepared. Link: tips on cold weather attire
Playing at home:
Starting week 2, we’ll give the girls 1-2 suggested play at home topics. These will cover basic and intermediate skills, starting with dribbling. Our goal is for every Junior Academy player to be a competent (and confident) dribbler: able to use multiple surfaces of both feet, able to change directions and speed while keeping control of the ball, and be able to escape from an opponent. If your daughter wants to get a head start, here are some activity links:
- Basic dribbling skills: www.nasaacademygirls.org/playing-at-home/dribbling/basics/
- Fun 1v1 dribbling games: www.nasaacademygirls.org/playing-at-home/dribbling/games/
Game day schedule:
We typically receive our game day schedule in mid-February. Using prior years as a guideline, we expect game days to start the first weekend in March and run through the weekend of May 18-19.
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.
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 a NTH-sponsored tournament the weekend of May 18-19, 2019. This will likely be a big tournament, hosting 100+ 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.
Depending on the number of U8 entrants, we may roster all of our girls, or only the girls with 2011 birth years. (We’ve found that few Junior Academy or pre-Academy programs at other clubs include 2012 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