Spring 2020 Practice Schedule

March 12, 2020 update:  Practices from March 12 forward are suspended until further notice due to risks from the Coronavirus. Link: more details.

We start spring 2020 practices the week of February 3rd!

We have the same practice days / times / fields as in the fall. We start the week of February 3rd and continue through the week of May 11th, with a spring break the week of April 6th.

DayLocationFieldTime
MondaysUnited Quest ParkUQP field 75:30 - 6:45 PM
TuesdaysMetro North ParkMNP "TOPS" field4:45 - 6:00 PM (through Mar 3)
5:00 - 6:15 PM (starts Mar 10)
6:25 - 7:00 PM optional goalkeeper training (begins March 10)
WednesdaysUnited Quest ParkUQP field 75:30 - 6:45 PM
6:55 - 7:30 PM optional goalkeeper training (begins February 19)
ThursdaysMetro North ParkMNP "TOPS" field4:45 - 6:00 PM (through Mar 5)
5:00 - 6:15 PM (starts Mar 12)

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 to 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 legible 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.

Arrival time / early-bird scrimmage:

Girls are welcome to arrive early! We typically have the field setup 15-20 minutes ahead of time, and we have an informal “early bird” scrimmage before our official practice start time.

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.

For more info about how we deal with bad weather, please check our weather link.

School winter break (week of Feb. 17):

Some local schools have a winter break the week of February 17th. We plan to keep our regular practice schedule that week.

Spring break (week of April 6):

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.

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:

the Electric Fence game

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:

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 either February 29th or March 7th and run through the weekend of May 16-17.

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 16-17, 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 2012 birth years. (We’ve found that few Junior Academy or pre-Academy programs at other clubs include 2013 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 during the summer or fall, please do so in February. Link:  registration paperwork