May 2020: Restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic caused us to cancel our standard large-group tryouts. We’re replacing our usual tryouts with small-group player evaluation sessions. If a player shows she belongs in the Junior Academy Girls program, we’ll invite her to join immediately after her evaluation session.
Player invitations:
We invite the following players to join the Junior Academy Girls program for the 2020-2021 soccer year. Players are listed by tryout number.
- 01, 02, 03, 06, 09, 10, 13, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, 22, 27, 29, 30, 34, 35, 36, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56
We’ll send an e-mail to each invited player’s family to confirm the invitation. If your daughter’s initials and/or tryout number are listed above, but you have not yet received your invitation e-mail, please e-mail ward.swain(at)nasa-ga(dot)org. If your daughter was invited to join, jump to the “What happens next?” section below for further information.
Missed tryouts?
If you missed our tryout sessions due to vacation or another schedule conflict, but are interested in the NTH Junior Academy Girls program, please e-mail coach Ward to arrange an informal tryout.
Not invited?
If your daughter isn’t invited to join, we strongly encourage her to continue playing! (Handled properly, this is a great opportunity for her to learn resilience and develop self-motivation.) The NTH recreational program has leagues for players age 4-19, and participation doesn’t require a tryout.
She should set a goal of becoming a player who wants to have the ball at her feet (has the confidence to dribble and looks to score goals), stays alert when teammates have the ball, and works hard on defense to regain possession when the other team has the ball. If your daughter wants ideas for improving her skills, please check our play at home activities.
If she loves the game and sticks with it, she’ll always have a chance to achieve her goals. Players develop at different rates, and a player who isn’t invited to join this time around may blossom by this time next year.
Over the 19-year history of our Academy program, we’ve had many cases where players tried out one year and weren’t invited to join, but kept playing and made it into the Academy program the next time around. These players showed that determination and effort (and sometimes an extra year of maturity) can help you reach your goals.
What happens next?
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- Make an informed decision: We want everyone to be fully informed about our program. Please review the information and links below for general information about the NTH Junior Academy Girls, along with details about fees, our schedule, and player / parent guidelines. If you have questions, please contact coach Ward.
- Junior Academy overview and goals
- Frequently asked questions
- Junior Academy fees
- Schedule:
- Summer 2020: We’ll have on-line parent orientation meetings in June. The girls are then off until Academy Team Camp starts August 3rd. We may have an occasional informal kick-around, but we won’t have any regularly scheduled training. (NTH offers summer camps and a summer training program for players who are interested in scheduled training. If the girls want to practice skills on their own, here’s a list of play at home activities.)
- Fall 2020: We’ll start regular practices the week after Academy Team Camp. We won’t receive our practice schedules until late July, but past history says girls in the United Quest Park group practice Mondays and Wednesdays at 5:30 PM, and girls in the Metro North Park group practice Tuesdays and Thursdays at 5:00 PM. (Girls are welcome to attend practices at the other park if they want additional training opportunities.) We’ll start our weekly game day schedule the weekend after Labor Day. We’ll finish the weekend before the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
- Winter 2020-21: We’re off December and January. We may have an occasional informal kick-around, but we won’t have any regularly scheduled training. We fully support girls playing basketball or participating in other activities during the break. (Gymnastics, dance and martial arts are all good cross-training activities.) NTH offers winter training for players who are interested in scheduled training.
- Spring 2021: We’ll start regular practices in February, exact date to be determined. Regular weekly game days will start in early March. We’ll finish the season by playing in the NTH Adidas Cup tournament in May.
- Summer 2021: Players will go though tryout sessions for the 2021-2022 soccer year. (Current invitations to the NTH Junior Academy are in effect for the 2020-2021 soccer year.) Our older girls (2013 birth years) will tryout for the U9 Academy group, while our younger girls (2014 birth years) will tryout for Junior Academy again. Tryouts typically start the Tuesday after Memorial Day.
- Player and parent guidelines:
- Notify the coach: Please respond via e-mail to coach Ward to let him know if you accept the invitation. (There is no obligation to join. If the level of commitment isn’t right for your daughter or family, the NTH recreational program is still available as an option.) If you accept the invitation, please include the following info in your message. Link: our data usage policy
- Your daughter’s name and date of birth
- Her preferred park (Metro North or United Quest)
- Her uniform number preferences (link: uniform number selection)
- Parent names
- Phone number(s)
- E-mail address(es)
Registration: Registration opens in June. Link: registration details- Orientation sessions: We’ll have on-line orientation meetings in June. (More details coming mid-June.)
- Uniforms: We started a new uniform cycle for the fall 2018 season. We expected to start a new uniform cycle for fall 2020, but word from NTH is that our current cycle will extend one more year. New players will need to order the uniform package. Returning players only need to order if they wish to switch uniform numbers, or need to replace outgrown or lost items.
- Make an informed decision: We want everyone to be fully informed about our program. Please review the information and links below for general information about the NTH Junior Academy Girls, along with details about fees, our schedule, and player / parent guidelines. If you have questions, please contact coach Ward.
Data usage policy:
- Our coach and/or team manager uses family contact data for Junior Academy Girls communication purposes.
- We send a roster / contact sheet PDF file to current members via e-mail. (We don’t post the PDF file on our web site.)
- We submit player names, uniform numbers and parent e-mail addresses to our uniform supplier (soccer.com). Our supplier deals directly with each family for uniform orders.
- When we play in a tournament, we are usually required to submit player names and birth dates, along with parent e-mail addresses to the tournament host.
- We don’t publish player birth dates, parent names, phone numbers or e-mail addresses on our web site.