Many of our players will be away during part or all of the schools’ 2018 spring break period — Saturday, March 31st through Sunday, April 8th — so we’ll change from our usual schedule.

Spring break schedule

We’ll keep our regular practice schedule for the week of March 26th.

We won’t have our usual game day on Saturday, March 31st, and won’t have our regular weeknight practices during the week of April 2nd.

We’ll have two events during the spring break week. These are optional “come if you can” events.

Tuesday, April 3rd, 5:00 – 6:15 PM: informal scrimmages at the Metro North Park small turf field. Girls should wear normal practice gear. Link: post-scrimmage group photos / video
Sunday, April 8th, 3:00 – 4:30 PM: informal game day at the Metro North Park small turf field. Girls should wear their navy blue game day uniforms with either navy blue socks or crazy socks. Older Academy sisters are welcome to attend! Link: post-scrimmage group photos / video

Here’s a link to group photos from our March 24 game day (our last game day before spring break).

US Women’s National Team TV alert

The US Women’s National Team plays Mexico twice in April. Both games will be televised:

Sunday, April 8: 1:30 PM on Fox
~~Thursday, April 5: 7:00 PM on Fox Sports 1~~ (USA wins 4-1)

Viewing tips:

We encourage the girls (parents too!) to watch part of each game to see what high level soccer looks like. Many young kids get bored watching sports — they would rather play! — but they are more likely to watch a game if they have specific viewing goals. Things to look for:

Do players keep the ball moving while they play, or do they stop the ball and look around?
Do players get their heads up and turn away from defenders (find open space), or do they play with heads down and dribble into defenders (go into bones and shin guards)?
Do players keep the ball by dribbling or passing, or do they kick the ball and chase it?
When the USA is attacking, do the backs stay back near their own goal, or do they move forward to help the attack? How far forward?